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wm^i 


HX00034215 


HE  DOCTOR'S 


ipftdslsli 


1AMES  ROBB  CHURCH 


SI3CS5518BKH 


[KAJ\bV 


^\-7 


ColumtJia  Winihzv^itf 
in  tfje  Citp  of  ^etD  gorfe 

Colkge  of  Ij^f^y&itiansi  anb  burgeons; 


l^ef  erence  Hibrarp 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 


First  Aid  Post  in  a  Ciiuik'ii 


p.  243 


THE 

DOCTOR'S  PART 

WHAT   HAPPENS    TO   THE    WOUNDED    IN    WAR 


BY 
JAMES  ROBB  CHURCH,  A.M.,  M,D. 

COLONEL  MEDICAL  CORPS,  V.  S.  ABMT 
WITH  FOREWORD  BY 

MAJOR-GENERAL  WILLIAM  C.  GORGAS 

8UBOEOX-GENERAL,  U.  S.  ABMY 


ILLUSTRATED 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 

1918 


Copyright,  1918,  by 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


1^5^5  1 

CM 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


FOREWORD 

These  impressions  of  a  Military  Observer  are 
the  results  of  over  two  years  spent  by  Colonel 
Church  on  the  Western  front  as  an  Observer  with 
our  Allies  and  later  on  the  Staff  of  the  Command- 
ing General  of  the  American  Expeditionary  Force. 

His  service  of  twenty  years  in  our  army,  includ- 
ing duty  on  the  Mexican  border  and  with  the 
First  United  States  Volunteer  Cavalry  (Rough 
Riders),  in  the  war  with  Spain  where  he  won  the 
-Medal  of  Honor  for  gallantry  under  fire,  well 
qualifies  him  for  this  important  duty. 

The  author  has  presented  in  non-technical  lan- 
guage much  information  which  will  be  of  value  to 
Medical  and  line  officers  as  they  go  abroad  on 
active  duty  with  troops  in  France. 

The  book  will  also  be  read  with  interest  by  the 
laity  as  Colonel  Church  has  the  happy  faculty  of 
presenting  the  human  side  of  his  experiences  in 
an  interesting  manner. 

He  has  given  us  a  glimpse  of  certain  side  lights 
of  the  great  war  not  heretofore  available. 


July  1,  1918. 

Washington,  D.  C. 


W.    C.    GORQAS, 

Surgeon  General, 

U.  S.  Army. 


PREFACE 

So  much  has  already  been  written  in  regard  to 
the  present  war  that  any  one  who  essays  to  add  to 
the  sum  total  cannot  help  but  wonder  if  there  is 
anything  left  unexpressed  by  those  who  have  gone 
before  him. 

The  inclination  to  describe  the  many  complex 
phases  which  enter  into  modern  conflict  is  per- 
haps natural.  There  are  two  passions  which  are, 
have  always  been,  of  paramount  interest  to  man- 
kind. Kipling  voices  this  when  he  says,  "Two 
things  greater  than  all  things  are,  the  first  is  love, 
the  second  is  war."  And  so  I  fancy  that  each 
individual  who  has  been  given  the  opportunity  to 
view  with  his  own  material  eyes  a  part  of  the 
titanic  struggle  which  at  present  convulses  this 
troubled  world,  believes  that  some  of  the  events 
which  he  has  taken  a  part  in  may  be  of  interest 
to  others. 

And  yet  I  am  sure  there  must  always  be  hidden 
somewhere  in  the  back  of  his  mind  the  doubting 
conviction  that  the  events  which  seem  so  real  to 
him  may  lack,  when  expressed,  the  value  which 
they  have  in  his  own  eyes. 

George  Moore,  in  his  altogether  charming  and 
entirely  irresponsible  writings,  "Memoirs  of  My 
Dead  Life,"  says, 

"Think  of  the  writer  of  stories!  Two,  three, 
or  four  more  stories  are  required  to  make  up  the 

9 


PREFACE 

requisite  number  of  pages.  The  dusk  has  inter- 
rupted his  labor,  and  he  rises  from  his  writing- 
table  asking  who  will  care  whether  the  last  stories 
are  written  or  left  unwritten?  If  he  writes  them 
his  ideas  will  flicker  green  for  a  brief  springtime, 
they  will  enjoy  a  little  summer;  when  his  garden 
is  fading  in  the  autumn  his  leaves  will  be  well- 
nigh  forgotten;  winter  will  overtake  them  sooner 
than  it  overtakes  his  garden,  perhaps.  The  flow- 
ers he  deemed  immortal  are  more  mortal  than  the 
rose.  'Why/  he  asks,  'should  any  one  be  inter- 
ested in  my  stories  any  more  than  in  the  thousand 
and  one  stories  published  this  year?  Mine  are 
among  the  number  of  trivial  things  that  compose 
the  tedium  which  we  call  life.'  " 

In  much  the  same  way  I  am  a  little  doubtful 
as  to  whether  the  things  I  saw,  and  had  a  part  in, 
may  have  the  same  active  interest  to  others  that 
they  did  for  me. 

During  a  busy  period  of  more  than  two  years 
in  embattled  France  I  had  ample  opportunity  to 
observe  the  work  which  my  French  professional 
brothers  were  doing,  and  the  conditions  under 
which  they  worked  from  the  first  line  trenches 
where  the  wounds  are  made,  back  to  the  hospitals 
of  the  inner  area  where  the  human  wreckage  is 
patched  and  cobbled  and  coaxed  again  to  full  effi- 
ciency, or  to  something  which  has  a  semblance  to 
man  as  God  made  him  in  His  image. 

The  wastage  in  Medical  personnel  has  been  high 
in  the  present  war  and  the  Sanitary  Service  has 
paid  its  own  red  toll  shoulder  to  shoulder  with 
the  brothers  of  the  Line.  I  believe  this  common 
sacrifice  in  the  cause  has  brought  the  two  services 
closer  together  than  ever  before:  has  enabled  each 

10 


PREFACE 

to  become  better  acquainted  with  the  fine  qualities 
of  the  other  and  to  be  more  tolerant  with  the  short- 
comings. 

I  saw  things  which  I  cannot  write  of  for^  ob- 
vious Military  reasons.  I  saw  others  which  are 
best  left  untold  as  the  gratuitous  transcription  of 
suffering  and  horror  which  should  have  no  other 
than  a  morbid  interest  to  the  layman. 

The  following  pages  comprise  the  impressions 
of  a  Medical  Military  Observer  of  matters  in  his 
own  province,  together  with  notes  of  other  current 
affairs.  It  is  in  no  sense  technical  and  it  makes 
no  pretense  to  the  dignity  of  "literature." 

I  hope  that  there  may  be  something  of  interest 
in  it  for  those  who  look  with  wistful  eyes  to  the 
troubled  East  and  wait  with  aching  hearts  for  the 
return  of  some  one,  "over  there." 

James  Robb  Church. 
Washington,  D.  C, 
July,  19I8. 


11 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


I.    Introductory 


II.    General  Sanitary  Service  op  the 
French 


III.  Hospitals  of  the  Interior 

IV.  The  Zone  of  the  Armies 
V.  Transportation 

VI.  Front  Lines    . 

VII.  Conclusion 


PAGB 

17 

34 
69 
104 
168 
222 
261 


13 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

First  Aid  Post  in  a  Church        .      Frontispiece 

PAOB 

Red  Cross  Nurses  at  a  Railway  Station 
Canteen  Giving  Coffee  to  the  Wounded      61 

Tent  Wards,  Showing  One  of  the  Type  of 
Tent  Used  by  the  French        ...      61 

Mutilated  Soldier  Learning  to  Engrave 
with  an  Artificial  Hand        ...      79 

Soldier  with  Double  Amputation  of  the 
Arms,  Showing  How  Much  May  Be  Ac- 
complished with  the  Artificial  Hands     .      79 

Fracture  Ward  in  Blake's  Hospital,  Com- 
monly Known  There  as  the  Machine 
Shop 85 

A  Fracture  Ward 85 

Operating  Room  on  a  "Sanitary  Train'*    145 

Interior  of  a  French  Dental  Ambulance. 
This  is  a  Rolling  Dental  Office,  Com- 
pletely Fitted  and  Mounted  on  an  Auto- 
mobile Truck 145 

Transport  of  Wounded  by  Litter  Through 
a  Trench 169 

Wheel  Litter  Transport      .        .        .        .     169 

15 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGS 


Ambulance  Drawn  by  Dogs        .        .        .    185 

Sanitary  Dog  .  .  .  ''Red  Cross  Dog*'.  .  . 
Dressing  His  Wounds     ....    185 

First   Aid   Post   in   Cellar   Belonging   to 
Arab,  ''Spahi'^  Troop    ....    205 

A  Trench,  Showing  Sign  Indicating  Loca- 
tion of  a  First  Aid  Station    .        .        .205 


16 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 


CHAPTER   I 


INTRODUCTORY 


I  SUPPOSE  that  prior  to  the  present  war  few 
of  the  people  who  make  up  our  ten  million  and 
odd  of  population  had  any  more  than  a  hazy 
idea  of  what  the  army,  which  they  paid  taxes 
to  support,  did  to  justify  the  expenditure. 
Ideas  were  hazy  because,  in  our  remoteness,  it 
seemed  that  we  were  geographically  immune 
from  attack,  and  consequently  the  armed 
forces  carried  about  the  same  interest  as 
father's  old  revolver,  loaded  and  tucked  away 
in  the  back  of  the  top  bureau  drawer:  a  tacit 
concession  to  the  possibility  of  the  unexpected 
burglar,  but  from  any  other  standpoint  of  lit- 
tle interest. 

And  so,  when  in  1915  I  told  some  of  my 

17 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

civilian  friends  that  I  had  been  ordered  abroad 
for  duty  as  Mihtary  Observer,  they  looked 
slightly  puzzled  and  after  asking,  "What  do 
you  mean.  Military  Observer?"  reverted  to  cur- 
rent topics  in  a  language  they  could  under- 
stand. 

A  Military  Observer  is  an  authorized  inter- 
national Village  Pest:  he  is  tolerated  by  bel- 
ligerent powers  because  they  may  some  time 
desire  themselves  to  be  onlookers  in  a  quarrel 
which  does  not  concern  them.  He  is  treated 
with  very  perfect  courtesy,  but  what  he  sees 
is  not  nearly  so  much  a  matter  of  consequence 
to  the  nation  at  war  as  to  put  something  over 
on  the  enemy.  He  is  governed  and  hedged 
about  by  very  precise  diplomatic  conditions, 
and  transgression  of  them  is  more  than  apt  to 
result  in  his  recall. 

From  his  own  standpoint,  he  is,  to  begin 
with,  a  neutral:  at  least,  he  is  very  particular 
to  convey  that  impression  to  those  with  whom 
he  comes  in  contact.  In  the  privacy  of  his 
own  mind  it  is  allowable  to  give  rein  to  his  indi- 

18 


INTRODUCTORY 

vidual  wishes  and  sympathies,  but  aside  from 
that  he  must  be  a  perfectly  impersonal  and 
very  inquisitive  person. 

His  duties  are  to  collect  and  transmit  in- 
formation :  that  is  about  the  sum  and  substance 
of  the  instructions  he  gets,  and  the  methods 
are  a  matter  of  his  own  personal  resource  and 
ingenuity.  The  fact  that  he  is  an  accredited 
representative  of  his  Government  gives  him  a 
certain  standing  with  the  country  to  which  he 
is  sent,  but  aside  from  that  it  is  a  more  or  less 
perfunctory  status.  In  the  first  place,  the 
warring  power  is  entirely  too  busy,  as  I  have 
said,  to  give  up  time  which  may  be  profitably 
employed  in  that  engaging  pastime  of  "killing 
your  neighbor"  to  showing  a  benevolent  neu- 
tral exactly  all  the  detail  of  the  modus  oper- 
andi. In  addition,  there  is  also  the  justifiable 
uncertainty  as  to  which  side  the  neutral  might 
take  if  he  decided  to  break  into  a  busy  private 
quarrel.  The  usual  International  procedure  is 
to  carefully  guard  the  safety  and  welfare  of 
the  observers  so  that  they  may  be  returned  in 

19 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

undamaged  condition  eventually  to  the  country 
which  sent  them.  At  stated  intervals  trips  are 
arranged  for  all  the  Observers  in  the  country 
and  they  are  taken  under  the  chaperonage  of 
a  designated  officer  to  such  points  as  the  fight- 
ing host  deems  proper,  and  he  shows  as  much  as 
is  considered  advisable.  You  do  not  see  more 
than  that,  either :  as  Ruggles  of  Red  Gap  said, 
"it  simply  isn't  done."  The  country  you  rep- 
resent cannot  make  too  many  requests,  for  it 
would  be  embarrassing  to  refuse  them  and 
embarrassing  to  be  refused.  And  there  you 
are!  Which  may  go  to  show  that  the  job  of 
collecting  and  forwarding  useful  information 
from  a  country  at  war,  to  your  own  Govern- 
ment is  by  no  means  a  sinecure,  but  a  job 
which  requires  patience,  tact  and  resource.  If 
you  add  to  this  the  fact  that  all  the  interesting 
things  that  you  want  to  know  about  are  cam- 
ouflaged under  a  language  which  you  thought 
you  knew  something  about  until  you  heard  the 
rapid  and  careless  way  its  inventors  use  it,  it 
may  readily  be  understood  that  the  life  of  the 

W 


2341527. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT 

THE  ADJUTANT  GENERAL'S  OFFICE 

WASHINGTON 

November  15,  1915. 

From:  The  Adjutant  General  of  the  Army. 

To;  Major  James  R.  Church,  Medical  Corps,  Fort  Crockett, 
Texas,  through  the  Commanding  General,  Eastern  Depart- 
ment. 
Subject:  Detail  as  Military  Observer. 

1.  The  Secretary  of  War  details  you  as  a  military  observer 
with  the  French  armies  in  the  field. 

2.  The  Secretary  directs,  as  necessary  in  the  military  ser- 
vice, that  you  repair  to  this  city  at  the  earliest  practicable 
date  and  report  in  person  to  the  Chief  of  Staff  for  temporary 
duty  in  his  office  for  a  period  of  fifteen  days;  that  at  the  ex- 
piration of  this  period  you  proceed  to  Paris,  France,  and 
report  to  the  American  Ambassador  at  that  capital  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  out  the  instructions  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment, and  that  upon  the  completion  of  the  duty  enjoined 
you  return  to  your  proper  station. 

3.  The  Secretary  of  War  appoints  you  an  acting  quarter- 
master while  on  this  duty.  p    ^    March 

Adjutant  General. 
Rec'd  Hq.  Eastern  Dept.  Nov.  16,  1915 

201  Church,  James  R.  1st  Ind.  was-mr 

HQ.  EASTERN  DEPT.,  Nov.  17,  1915.— Through  Depart- 
ment Surgeon  and  Comdg.  Officer,  Ft.  Crockett,  Tex.,  to 
Major  James  R.  Church,  Med.  Corps.  WAS 

H.P.B.  2nd  Ind. 

Office  Dept.  Surgeon,  E.  D.,  Nov.  18,  1915— Through  the 
C.  O.  Ft.  Crockett,  to  Major  James  R.  Church,  M.C. 

RECD  HCDG 

AM  11/22/15 

Thru  Surgeon,  to  Maj.  James  R.  Church,  M  C,  11/22/15 

Author's   Appointment   as    Military   Observkh 
IN  France 

^1 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

Military  Observer  is  not  an  idle  one  nor  alto- 
gether a  bed  of  roses. 

I  knew  all  this  as  a  matter  of  theory  before 
I  went  to  France  but,  once  there,  I  quickly 
recognized  the  difference  between  theory  and 
practice. 

In  November,  1915,  I  received  an  order 
which  came  in  the  nature  of  a  surprise.  (See 
page  21.)  The  opportunity  offered  was  a  fas- 
cinating one,  but  the  novel  demand  which  it 
makes  on  one's  resources  would,  I  think,  leave 
the  average  man  with  some  apprehension  as  to 
whether  he  could  measure  up  to  the  standard 
expected  of  him. 

I  left  the  United  States  on  the  15th  of  Jan- 
uary, 1916,  and  after  the  usual  winter  cross- 
ing, which  was  at  that  time  little  disturbed  by 
any  apprehension  of  submarine  menace,  landed 
at  Liverpool;  from  Liverpool  to  London  and, 
after  a  short  stay  there,  to  France.  The  Chan- 
nel crossing,  even  at  that  time,  was  a  tedious 
and  delayed  procedure,  and  one  knew  only  a 
short  time  in  advance  as  to  what  port  he  would 

22 


INTRODUCTORY 

sail  from  and  at  what  he  would  arrive.  We 
crossed  from  Folkestone  to  Dieppe  on  the  after- 
ward ill-fated  Sussex^  and  if  she  had  been 
torpedoed  that  day,  I  think  there  might  have 
been  an  extended  casualty  list,  for  every  avail- 
able inch  of  space  seemed  to  be  occupied  by 
human  freight.  The  cabins  were  full,  the  din- 
ing saloon  was  jammed,  all  deck  chairs  occu- 
pied, and  many  stood  on  deck  during  the  five 
or  six  bleak  hours  that  it  required  to  transport 
us  from  Albion  to  Gaul.  Fortunately,  the  sea 
was  smooth  and  there  was  none  of  the  horror 
of  seasickness. 

At  Dieppe,  in  the  darkness  of  a  winter  night, 
we  proved  to  the  Alien  Officer  that  we  were  suit- 
able for  entry  into  France,  and  I  was  chlded 
for  not  showing  the  diplomatic  passport  which 
I  had  and  thus  taking  precedence  over  my  tired 
fellow  passengers. 

I  unwittingly  slipped  one  over  on  the  Cus- 
toms, for  in  my  suit  case  I  had  about  500 
American  cigarettes  on  which  I  supposed  I 
should  either  have  to  pay  duty  or  claim  diplo- 
ma 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

matic  exemption.  However,  the  officer  with 
whom  I  was  traveling  put  his  hand  baggage 
down  next  to  mine  and  the  French  examiner 
opened  two  of  his  pieces,  none  of  mine,  assum- 
ing that  they  all  belonged  to  my  fellow  traveler, 
and  I  went  gayly  and  guiltily  away. 

We  arrived  at  Paris  at  one  in  the  morning 
of  the  29th  of  January,  and  at  nine  that  night 
received  our  first  intimation,  from  the  measure 
of  personal  realization,  that  we  were  in  a  war- 
ridden  country. 

Some  three  or  four  of  us  went  that  evening 
to  the  Gaumont  Palace  Theater,  over  in  the 
Montmartre  neighborhood,  to  a  moving  picture 
performance.  As  we  came  out  at  the  end  of 
the  show  we  noticed  that  the  city  was  darker 
than  usual  and  that  there  were  crowds  of  peo- 
ple in  the  streets,  watching  the  skies.  Pencils 
of  white  light  streaked  the  heavens  and  there 
seemed  to  be  a  rapt  attention  in  the  air  of  all 
the  low-voiced  French  speaking  people  whom 
we  passed. 

We  went  down  through  the  gloomy  streets 

S4 


INTRODUCTORY 


of  the  Montmartre  district,  stumbling  from  one 
curb  to  the  other,  and  wondering  when  we 
might  hear  the  crash  of  falling  bombs  and  the 
reply  of  the  French  anti-aircraft  guns.  We 
made  an  uneventful  trip  over  to  the  Place  de  la 
Concorde  and  came  out  there  into  the  still  dark- 
ness of  a  winter  night,  which  was  interrupted 
only  by  the  flashing  rays  of  the  many  search- 
lights, which  constantly  shifted  from  one  part 
of  the  heavens  to  the  other.  After  standing 
there  for  what  seemed  to  me  an  indefinite  length 
of  time,  we  heard  the  Paris  fire  engines  going 
through  the  streets  sounding  their  horns,  and 
in  addition  the  "brelocque,"  which  is  the  French 
Army  "recall"  and  means  that  the  danger  for 
the  time  being  is  over. 
The  "Brelocque" 


:p=t: 


^^- 


t 


-f  •  y  ^ 


I 


The   French    "Recall" 
25 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

This  ended  my  first  day  on  French  soiL 

Of  necessity,  my  earlier  days  in  the  French 
capital  were  given  up  to  adjusting  myself  to 
conditions  there,  to  finding  how  I  might  be  of 
the  best  use  and  familiarizing  myself  with 
conditions  as  they  existed  in  relation  to  official 
life  and  my  chances  for  obtaining  the  informa- 
tion for  which  I  had  been  sent  abroad. 

After  about  a  week  I  was  notified  that  I 
would  be  received  at  the  War  Department  as  an 
accredited  representative  of  our  Government,  to 
be  introduced  there  by  our  military  attache, 
who  would  present  my  credentials  and  introduce 
me  to  those  who  might  further  my  aims  in 
France. 

To  any  one  who  has  business  with  the 
French  War  Department  the  contrast  with 
our  own  methods  in  this  western  democracy 
must  be  very  striking.  In  Washington,  prior 
to  war  days,  any  citizen  of  our  free  republic 
had  the  privilege  of  walking  unchallenged  into 
the  War  Department  and  was  only  possibly 
halted  at  the  door  of  the  office  to  which  he 

26 


INTRODUCTORY 

sought  admission.  In  France  things  are  de- 
cidedly different.  The  War  Department  in 
France,  the  building  in  which  is  housed  the 
machinery  which  is  running  so  large  and  com- 
plicated an  organization,  is  unpretentious, 
rather  out  of  repair  and  does  not  compare  at 
all  with  our  own  ornate  building  in  Washing- 
ton. It  seems  a  queer  setting  for  the  cunning 
genius  which  is,  and  has  been,  directing  so  fine 
an  attack  and  defense  against  the  invading 
Hun  for  the  period  since  1914. 

We  were  challenged  at  the  gate,  a  very  se- 
cure gate,  at  the  entrance  to  the  War  De- 
partment by  a  reservist  in  red  "pants"  (very 
red),  with  a  long  mustache  (very  long),  who 
scrutinized  very  carefully  the  specific  written 
pass  which  we  had  and,  after  his  approval,  ad- 
mitted us  to  the  labyrinth  of  dusty  winding 
stairs,  which  took  us  eventually  to  a  courteous 
Major  of  the  French  service;  who  chatted  very 
amiably  with  the  Military  Attache  and,  as  I 
understood,  promised  in  a  general  way  to  afford 
us  the  facilities  which  were  usually  granted  to 

rt 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

representatives  of  a  neutral  country.  From 
his  office  we  went  to  another  one,  where  we 
were  presented  to  an  equally  charming  French 
Staff  Colonel,  who  renewed  the  assurances  of 
good  fellowship  but  made  us  no  definite  prom- 
ises. In  fact,  it  seemed  to  be  a  recognized 
part  of  the  game  that,  while  we  were  to  be  ac- 
corded all  courtesies  and  every  possible  op- 
portunity for  the  gleaning  of  information,  it 
was  probable  that  we  could  not  rely  to  an  ex- 
cessive extent  on  the  overtaxed  resources 
which  had  other  things  to  do,  rather  than  to 
explain  to  the  curious  bystander  why  they  were 
doing  them. 

This  was  my  introduction  to  my  duties  as 
an  Observer  in  France.  Added  to  this,  I  found 
that  it  was  difficult  for  me  to  understand  the 
rapid,  careless  French  of  the  Parisians  and  evi- 
dently more  than  difficult  for  them  to  under- 
stand my  best  attempts  at  their  own  language. 
Fortunately,  for  the  sake  of  my  mission  and 
its  fulfillment,  in  due  course  of  time  the  rapid 
stream  of  French  which  at  first  meant  so  lit- 

28 


INTRODUCTORY 

tie  to  me,  fell  into  a  more  or  less  orderly  se- 
quence and  I  was  able  to  mend  many  of  the  er- 
rors of  my  early  days,  both  those  of  omission 
and  commission.  As  an  evidence  of  helpless- 
ness during  my  first  experiences  in  and  about 
Paris,  I  might  cite  my  system  of  getting  from 
one  place  to  another. 

The  American  policeman  is  replaced  in  Paris 
by  the  *'Agent  de  Police."  He  is  sprinkled 
about  Paris  with  about  the  same  frequency  as 
the  American  "copper"  is  in  our  own  cities; 
his  duties  are  those  of  our  own  police  officers, 
and  his  manners  are  tinged  with  the  true  po- 
liteness of  the  French,  and  if  he  does  not  ex- 
pect it,  at  least  he  appreciates  a  military  sa- 
lute, whether  one  be  in  uniform  or  not. 

When  hopelessly  lost,  I  found  that  my  best 
way  was  to  approach  one  of  these  dignified 
Agents  de  Police  and,  in  the  best  French  I  could 
command,  ask  him  for  directions  in  regard  to 
the  place  I  wanted  to  go.  If  he  understood  me 
(which  he  did  about  half  the  time),  he  imme- 
diately launched  into  a  voluble  explanation.     I 

29 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

paid  no  attention  whatever  to  this  and  let  my 
mind  wander  to  any  extraneous  topic:  Ty 
Cobb's  batting  average,  who  would  win  the 
Yale-Princeton  game  that  fall,  or  anything  else 
that  came  into  my  mind.  When  he  reached 
the  end  of  his  explanation,  however,  I  became 
instantly  intent,  for  at  the  conclusion  of  his 
directions  he  was  always  sure  to  point  in  some 
direction,  and,  following  the  lead  of  his  out- 
stretched hand,  I  thanked  him  courteously  in 
French  and  started  off  in  the  direction  which 
he  indicated.  After  having  gone  as  far  as  I 
considered  safe,  I  hunted  up  another  Agent  de 
Police  and  worked  the  same  game  on  him.  In 
this  way,  by  what  I  suppose  one  might  call  a 
semaphore  system,  I  was  enabled  always  in 
broad  daylight  eventually  to  work  myself  from 
one  place  to  another.  If  the  condition  had 
occurred  in  the  night  when  I  could  not  have 
seen  my  policeman  friend,  all  my  knowledge  of 
spoken  language  would  have  availed  me  little 
or  nothing. 

Realizing   my    shortcomings    in    the    French 

30 


INTRODUCTORY 

language,  a  knowledge  of  which  I  had 
foolishly  supposed  I  possessed  when  leaving 
the  United  States,  I  sought  quarters  at  once 
with  a  French  family,  none  of  whom  had  any 
acquaintance  with  English  and  who  were  will- 
ing to  attempt  to  instruct  me  in  the  intricacies 
of  French  as  it  is  spoken  in  Paris.  The  ac- 
quisition of  French  under  such  circumstances 
is  not  entirely  a  bed  of  roses.  Sanitary  im- 
provements in  France  are  not  on  an  equal  plane 
with  those  to  which  the  average  American  is 
accustomed.  The  French  find  no  dilBculty  in 
keeping  their  houses  at  least  as  warm  as  the 
temperature  outdoors ;  beyond  that,  they  seem 
to  have  no  particular  interest.  The  house  in 
which  I  lived  during  a  severe  winter  had  no 
heat  in  it  with  the  exception  of  a  gas  fire  in 
the  kitchen  to  cook  with  and  was  guiltless  of 
any  bathing  facilities.  When  one  felt  the  ne- 
cessity of  a  bath,  there  was  always  the  French 
public  bath  establishment  available  for  a  cer- 
tain, not  excessive,  fee. 

I   know   many   people  who    cheerfully   state 

31 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

that  if  they  went  abroad  they  would  imme- 
diately seek  quarters  of  this  kind  in  a  French 
family  and  learn  French.  I  doubt  very  much 
if  they  understand  what  the  whole  thing  means. 
To  be  a  guest  with  people,  who,  although 
kindly,  considerate,  interested  and  thoroughly 
sympathetic,  have  a  different  viewpoint  in  re- 
gard to  almost  everything,  makes  the  situation 
a  little  trying.  In  addition  to  this,  to  be  in 
an  atmosphere  which  is  murky  with  an  unknown 
language  which  is  constantly  dinned  into  your 
ears,  leaves  one's  brain  tired  and  fagged  be- 
yond expression  at  the  end  of  the  day. 

My  good  landlady  used  to  come  in  and  talk 
French  and  read  French  to  me  in  the  morning 
while  I  had  my  early  coffee.  She  captured 
me  at  noontime  and  talked  French  to  me  all 
through  my  midday  meal.  On  any  of  my  free 
days  she  appropriated  me  to  go  with  her  to 
points  of  interest  in  Paris  and  to  listen  in  the 
meantime  to  the  rapid  flow  of  very  perfect  but 
badly  understood  Parisian  French.  I  went 
to  the  theater  with  her  on  my  free  evenings.     I 

S2 


INTRODUCTORY 

met  all  her  friends  who  came  to  call  on  her.  I 
was  taken  to  call  on  all  her  French  friends  and 
by  them,  in  turn,  upon  all  their  friends.  None 
of  them  spoke  any  English.  I  lived  in  a  be- 
fuddled atmosphere  of  a  language  in  which  I 
was  constantly  groping  and  never  sure  of  mj 
meanings.  I  made  mistakes,  they  misunder- 
stood what  I  wished  to  say,  and,  all  in  all,  it 
seemed  a  most  discouraging  proposition. 

I  remember  one  or  two  despairing  occasions 
when  I  had  been  all  day  battling  to  keep  my 
chin  before  this  French  flood,  when  on  my  re- 
turn from  some  French  excursion  of  this  sort 
I  made  a  plea  that  I  had  collars  to  buy  or  a 
friend  to  see  and  my  last  ray  of  hope  was 
choked  off  by  the  cheerful  assurance  of  madame 
that  she  was  not  at  all  tired  and  would  go 
with  me. 

The  above  is  not  a  complaint,  but  merely 
a  suggestion  that  the  acquisition  of  a  practical 
working  linguistic  knowledge  which  one  as- 
sumes that  he  has,  may  not  always  measure  up 
to  the  standards  which  he  has  set  for  it. 

3d 


CHAPTER  II 

GENERAL    SANITARY    SERVICE    OP   THE    FRENCH 

I  SUPPOSE  at  the  present  time  there  is  no 
doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  one  in  the  civilized 
world  that  the  Germans  in  1914  were  the  most 
perfectly  prepared  of  any  of  the  nations  for  a 
state  of  invasive  warfare.  The  French  were 
prepared,  but  still  in  the  midst  of  many  im- 
provements in  the  perfecting  of  their  war  ma- 
chine which  had  not  been  brought  up  to  date. 

Along  with  other  things,  the  Sanitary 
Service  of  the  French  was  still  in  a  condition  of 
transition.  By  "Sanitary  Service"  I  mean  the 
whole  measure  of  the  French  for  caring  for 
their  sick  and  wounded,  the  same  thing  which 
is  covered  in  our  own  service  here  in  America 
under  the  direction  of  our  Medical  Depart- 
ment. In  1910  a  decree  had  been  issued  by  the 
French  making  decided  changes  in  their  Sani- 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

tary  Service,  and  when  the  war  broke  out  in 
1914  these  changes  had  not  been  thoroughly 
incorporated  into  their  system  of  army  organ- 
ization. Of  necessity  on  this  account  there  was 
a  certain  amount  of  initial  disorganization  in 
the  care  of  those  wounded  or  sick  amongst  the 
army  forces  in  the  early  period  of  the  war. 

To  give  some  idea  of  what  the  French  Sani- 
tary Service,  the  organization  that  cared  for 
their  wounded,  covered,  it  might  be  well  to  un- 
derstand some  of  the  arrangements  the  French 
made  for  this  purpose  during  times  of  peace. 

Of  course  every  one  knows  that  all  French 
subjects  are  liable  to  military  duty,  obligatory 
military  service.  All  France  in  times  of  peace 
is  divided  into  "regions" — there  are  21  of  these, 
all  told,  in  the  Republic — 19  in  continental 
France  proper  and  2  in  Morocco  and  Algiers. 
During  peace  times  each  of  these  regions  is  oc- 
cupied by  a  French  Army  and  military  com- 
mand is  vested  in  the  commander  of  that  army. 
During  times  of  peace  certain  precautionary 
measures  are  taken  through  the  Sanitary  de- 

35 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

partment  in  each  of  these  regions.  That  is  to 
saj,  the  French  have  looked  forward  to  a  pos- 
sible invasion  of  their  country  ever  since  the 
irar  of  1870  and  have  been  shaping  their  af- 
fairs by  the  light  of  that  occurrence.  The 
sanitary  matters  in  each  of  these  regions  were 
organized  partly  under  the  strict  supervision 
of  the  regular  medical  department  of  the  army 
and  partly  through  the  intermediary  assistance 
of  the  French  Red  Cross. 

At  the  time  of  mobilization  the  command  of 
these  regions  passed  from  the  commander  of 
the  mobile  army,  who  went  with  his  forces,  and 
was  delegated  to  an  officer  of  the  reserve  or 
one  who  was  beyond  active  military  age,  and 
upon  his  shoulders  fell  the  responsibility  for 
the  putting  into  operation  of  the  measures  in- 
stituted in  times  of  peace  for  the  care  and 
reception  of  wounded  which  might  result  from 
the  war. 

This  meant,  in  fact,  the  selection  in  each 
region  of  a  certain  number  of  buildings,  schools, 
where  available,  and  large  pubhc  buildings,  or 

36 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

anything  of  that  sort  which  would  be  readilj 
adapted  to  the  care  of  the  sick,  and  the  draw- 
ing up  of  plans  leading  to  their  rapid  trans- 
formation for  the  purpose  intended.  In  addi- 
tion to  this,  the  Red  Cross  undertook  to  fur- 
nish a  certain  amount  of  supplies  for  the  main- 
tenance of  these  hospitals,  and  they  were  stored 
in  each  district,  although  not  necessarily  in  the 
hospitals  themselves. 

In  regard  to  personnel,  the  medical  person- 
nel from  the  standpoint  of  the  Red  Cross  was 
practically  nil.  This  can  be  readily  under- 
stood when  we  consider  that  France  was  living 
under  a  system  of  compulsory  military  serv- 
ice. All  men  of  military  age,  whether  medical 
men  or  otherwise,  were  subject  to  draft  on  the 
mobilization  orders  issued  at  the  commence- 
ment of  hostilities,  and  this  left  no  opportu- 
nity for  any  surplus  personnel  of  a  non-military 
type  to  be  used  to  man  these  hospitals.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Red  Cross  Societies  trained 
and  educated  a  certain  number  of  women  who 
were  competent,  to  a  limited  degree  at  least, 

37 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

for  the  duties  of  nurses.  All  this  was  France's 
reserve  in  event  of  just  such  an  occurrence  as 
the  invasion  by  Germany  in  August,  1914. 

As  I  have  stated  before,  this  organization 
was  not  completed  at  that  time  in  accordance 
with  the  decree  of  May,  1910,  and  in  the  early 
days  of  the  war  there  was  undoubtedly  much 
hardship  due  to  this  fact.  As  time  went  on, 
the  French  realized  that  the  conflict  was  not  a 
matter  of  months  but  one  of  a  considerable 
length  of  time,  the  various  defects  were  reme- 
died, the  sanitary  machine  and  personnel  ham- 
mered into  shape  and  brought  to  work  with  the 
most  excellent  efficiency  which  characterizes  it 
to-day. 

For  instance,  after  the  battle  of  the  Mame 
in  September,  1914,  there  was  lacking  trans- 
port by  train,  by  horse-drawn  vehicles,  and 
most  notably  by  automobile  transport.  There 
were  not  nearly  sufficient  hospitals  to  receive 
and  care  for  the  large  number  of  wounded  which 
came  from  the  battle  of  the  Mame  and  the 
French  retreat  preceding  this.     As  a  natural 

38 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

consequence,  there  was  much  improvisation  and, 
as  would  naturally  be  expected,  this  makeshift 
method  did  not  stand  the  test  and  gave  very 
evident  proof,  not  only  to  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment itself,  but  to  the  generality  of  France, 
that  rapid  improvement  in  the  whole  system  of 
caring  for  the  sick  and  wounded  was  a  very 
imperative  necessity. 

France  took  this  matter  very  seriously,  as 
was  indicated  in  the  report  of  a  High  Com- 
mission authorized  by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
and  commonly  known  as  the  "Reinach"  report, 
which,  by  the  way,  forms  very  interesting  read- 
ing in  regard  to  this  subject. 

Dating  from  this  period,  conditions  in  re- 
gard to  the  care  of  sick  and  wounded  fell  into 
more  orderly  lines,  and  errors  in  the  assignment 
of  personnel  and  the  utilization  of  various  vol- 
unteer organizations  were  more  clearly  classi- 
fied, and  the  whole  system  was  put  upon  a  more 
orderly  basis. 

The  French  had  at  this  time,  that  is  to  say, 
after  the  battle  of  the  Mame,  found  the  ne- 

39 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

cessity  of  sending  a  great  number  of  their 
wounded  far  into  the  interior  to  be  taken  care 
of  by  the  volunteer  organizations  already  re- 
ferred to.  They  found  from  actual  experience 
that  in  this  practice  one  of  two  conditions  ex- 
isted. Either  the  men  did  not  receive  the  pre- 
cise and  careful  treatment  that  they  needed, 
or,  through  an  excess  of  sympathy,  they  were 
over-treated  and  were  held  at  the  rear  for  a 
longer  time  than  was  necessary,  so  that  the 
fighting  forces  at  the  front  were  unnecessarily 
deprived  of  the  services  of  men  who  should 
have  been  returned  long  before  the  period  of 
their  actual  arrival. 

A  French  medical  officer,  in  commenting  on 
this  situation  to  me,  remarked:  "The  armies 
melted  like  snow  and  many  who  were  furloughed 
to  the  interior  disappeared  like  rabbits  in  the 
underbrush."  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that, 
after  a  short  experience  of  this  kind,  the  French 
realized  that  some  more  practical  method  had 
to  be  evolved,  and  this  was  the  beginning  of 

40 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

the  present  workman-like  system  which  leaves 
very  few  able-bodied  men  unaccounted  for. 

With  the  present  system  I  think  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  the  most  important  thing  in  the  sani- 
tary scheme  is  that  comprised  in  the  French 
word  "triage,"  which  means  "sorting."  Yoh 
hear  it  everywhere  in  connection  with  the  oper- 
ation of  the  service,  and  in  addition  to  being  a 
method  of  classification,  it  is  a  careful  and  con- 
tinual check  on  the  movement  of  the  wounded 
and  disabled.  After  the  experience  gained  by 
sending  the  non-effective  back  into  the  Zone  of 
the  Interior,  the  French  cast  about  for  a  more 
logical  method  of  caring  for  them.  It  was 
decided  that  the  best  thing  for  both  the  State 
and  the  individual  was  to  shorten  as  much  as 
possible  the  time  between  the  receipt  of  the  in- 
jury and  the  curative  means  employed.  The 
percentage  of  recoveries  was  higher  when 
wounds  were  treated  within  some  hours  after 
their  infliction  than  if  days  intervened,  and  in 
this  way  lives  were  conserved  not  only  for  the 
benefit  of  the  individual,  but  to  the  advantage 

41 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

of  the  army  as  a  further  addition  to  the  fight- 
ing force.  In  the  second  place,  it  minimized 
very  much  the  evil  of  absenteeism  which  I  re- 
ferred to  and  which  at  one  time  was  a  serious 
problem  for  the  French  to  face. 

The  outcome  was  that  the  majority  of  the 
cases  were  held  in  the  Zone  of  the  Armies  and 
there,  under  direct  Military  authority,  they 
were  not  lost  nor  delayed  in  their  return  to  their 
organizations.  With  this  idea  the  various 
units  of  the  Zone  of  the  Armies  were  developed 
and  built  up.  The  Evacuation  Hospitals  came 
to  be,  in  part  at  least,  true  hospitals  and  not 
merely  forwarding  points.  The  Ambulances 
of  the  First  Line  took  more  formal  care  of  the 
wounded  than  before,  and  throughout  the  Zone 
of  the  Armies  the  Surgical  centers  were  de- 
veloped and  in  them  patients  were  grouped  who 
would  have  been  scattered  under  the  old  system 
throughout  the  Zone  of  the  Interior. 

I  spoke  a  few  pages  back  of  the  part  which 
the  French  Red  Cross  plays  in  the  care  of  the 
sick  and  wounded.    It  seems  to  me  that  there  is 

4S 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

here,  in  the  United  States,  a  good  deal  of  mis- 
understanding as  to  the  real  function  of  this 
society  during  time  of  war.  With  the  French  it 
is  almost  exclusively  employed  in  regions  other 
than  of  actual  conflict.  The  Red  Cross  nurse  in 
the  poster,  she  of  the  winsome  face  and  spotless 
uniform  liberally  adorned  with  the  insignia  of 
the  society,  caring  for  a  wounded  man  amid  a 
hail  of  shot  and  shell,  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
replaced  by  some  hairy  and  probably  dirty- 
faced  Brancardier  whose  military  duty  it  is  to 
get  himself  killed  if  need  be  while  he  brings  in 
his  wounded  brother  of  the  line.  Common 
sense  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  fringe  of 
a  battlefield  is  no  place  for  a  woman.  I  have 
no  desire  to  impugn  their  courage,  but  it  just 
is  not  a  woman's  job  any  more  than  it  would 
be  for  them  to  take  rifle  and  grenade  and  go 
charging  forth  to  attack  the  opposing  lines. 
There  are  some  instances  where  women  have 
maintained  aid  posts  and  rest  and  comfort  sta- 
tions close  to  the  lines  and  they  have  done  the 
work  well,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  duties 

43 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

whick  must  be  performed  on  or  near  the  front 
lines  fall  to  the  hand  of  man  rather  than  to 
tkose  of  the  gentler  sex. 

As  it  has  been  with  the  French,  so  will  it  be 
with  our  own  forces,  and  the  adventuresome 
and  plucky  girl  who  goes  abroad  with  the  idea 
of  work  of  this  character  will  probably  be  dis- 
appointed. This  does  not  mean  that  those  who 
nurse  with  the  army  are  free  from  risk,  for  the 
Bodhe,  in  the  persistent  idea  of  undermining 
the  allied  morale,  still  sticks,  and  probably  will 
continue  to  stick,  to  the  plan  of  bombarding 
and  bombing  buildings  protected  by  the  Red 
Cross  with  the  same  indifference  that  he  dis- 
plays in  regard  to  any  question  involving  right 
and  wrong.  Nurses  and  medical  officers  have 
beea  killed  in  a  number  of  hospitals  under  these 
circumstances  and  there  is  no  probability  that 
any  of  the  Sanitary  Units  which  work  within 
gun  range  or  easy  flying  distance  of  the  Ger- 
man lines  wiU  have  any  immunity  from  attack. 
The  determination  of  the  personnel  which  is 
available  for  the  Sanitary  Service  of  the  French 

44 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

is  not  a  difficult  matter.  No  more  so  than  the 
determination  of  the  personnel  of  the  Army, 
since  both  are  dependent  on  the  law  of  nniyersal 
service. 

The  Regular — standing — Army  of  France  is 
fixed  by  law  at  a  certain  number  both  as  to  Ike 
commissioned  and  enlisted  personnel,  and  in  the 
event  of  the  outbreak  of  war  this  does  not  iM- 
crease  as  such,  but  remains  the  same.  TTie 
increase  is  made  in  the  personnel  which  is  called 
to  the  colors  from  the  citizens  of  the  land  who 
have  been  trained  for  this  duty  by  the  period 
of  compulsory  service  and  the  yearly  maneu- 
vers. The  medical  profession  has  no  exemption 
(neither  has  the  clergy)  from  this  duty,  and 
if  a  doctor  is  not  needed  in  his  own  character 
he  goes  to  make  up  part  of  the  combatant 
force.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  with  the  high  wast- 
age in  the  Sanitary  Service  there  has  been  oc- 
casion not  only  for  all  the  graduates  in  medi- 
cine, but  the  French  have  made  use  also  of  cer- 
tain of  the  medical  students  who  have  completed 
enough  of  their  work  to  be  of  actual  service 

45 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

with  certain  units  in  the  field.  These  are  termed 
the  "Medecins  Auxiliares,"  and  are  of  verj  real 
value  in  the  work  of  the  corps. 

In  time  of  peace  each  man  who  has  com- 
pleted his  training  knows  to  what  provisional 
regiment  he  is  assigned  and  each  officer,  medi- 
cal as  well  as  combatant,  has  his  sealed  orders 
which  he  is  to  open  if  war  is  declared  and  which 
will  give  him  directions  as  to  where  to  report 
and  to  whom.  General  mobilization  orders  are 
prepared  also  and  are  stored  in  the  barracks 
of  the  "Gendarmerie  National,"  or  State  Po- 
lice. When  the  State  decides  to  call  forth  the 
forces,  the  necessary  data,  date  and  place,  etc., 
are  filled  in  at  the  barracks  of  the  Gendarmes 
and  the  proclamations,  or  orders  of  mobiliza- 
tion, are  all  posted  throughout  the  country  at 
the  same  time.  Care  is  taken  so  that  these  re- 
serve regiments  are  made  up  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  region,  and  the  consequence  is  that  all 
who  are  called  are  supposed  to  be  at  the  depot 
or  place  of  assembly  within  twenty-four  hours 
after  the  mobilization  order  has  been  posted. 

46 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

As  to  the  medical  personnel  of  a  regiment,  gen- 
erally the  senior  officer  is  one  selected  from  the 
regular  establishment  to  give  balance  to  the  or- 
ganization and  the  others  supplied  from  the  re- 
serve who  come  under  the  mobilization. 

In  addition  to  those  Medical  Officers  who  are 
needed  for  the  care  of  the  Regiments,  there  are 
of  course  a  number  who  are  required  for  other 
organizations.  To  meet  this  requirement  there 
is  kept  in  the  office  of  the  Chief  of  the  Sani- 
tary Service  a  list  of  the  Medical  persoimel 
which  is  available  and  from  it  is  drawn  the  num- 
ber required -for  extra-regimental  requirements. 
In  this  reserve  army  there  is  no  limit ;  those 
who  are  needed  are  called  and  on  the  cessation 
of  hostilities  they  revert  again  to  an  inactive 
status.  The  effect  is  that  every  able-bodied 
man  in  France  is  a  potential  defender  of  the 
State  and  that  he  must  stand  ready  to  drop  all 
else  and  give  his  services  to  the  common  need. 
The  education  of  these  Reserve  Medical  Offi- 
cers is  that  which  is  acquired  by  any  prac- 
ticioner  of  medicine  plus  the  term  of  required 

47 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

tervice,  three  years  with  the  colors.  Under 
these  conditions  any  man  called  from  civil  life 
has  the  advantage  that  he  does  not  go  from 
the  paths  of  peace  to  the  ways  of  war  with  only 
a  hazy  idea  as  to  what  the  duties  of  a  soldier 
are.  He  has  had,  so  to  speak,  a  magnified 
Plattsburg  and  comes  to  the  ways  of  the  serv- 
ice with  less  timidity  and  more  confidence  than 
if  it  were  altogether  terra  incognita.  For  the 
Medical  Officer  of  the  Regular  Army  admis' 
sion  is  by  way  of  the  schools  at  Lyons,  or  else- 
where. The  young  man  who  decides  to  make 
Military  Medicine  his  career  matriculates  at  the 
Medical  School  at  Lyons  and  takes  the  same 
courses  there  as  do  his  civilian  brothers,  but  in 
addition  to  this  he  has  extra  work  given  by  the 
Military  Faculty  in  the  same  place  and  he  lives 
during  the  time  of  his  study  under  Military 
control. 

This  school  is  organized  to  train  five  hundred 
or  more  students  and  the  proportion  of  ac- 
cepted candidates  is  generally  about  10  per 
oeait.    The  applicant  for  admission  must  be  un- 

48 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

3er  twenty-four  years  of  age,  the  possessor  of 
a  Baccalaureate  Degree  and  have  had  one  year 
in  a  recognized  Medical  School.  If  accepted 
after  physical  and  mental  examination  the  stu- 
dent receives  the  grade  of  "Aspirant,"  which 
is  equivalent  to  a  warrant  grade.  After  admis- 
sion to  the  school  he  is  assigned  to  a  Regiment, 
usually  Cavalry,  as  a  private,  and  serves  there 
with  no  medical  function  for  one  year,  after 
which  he  returns  to  the  school  and  takes  up  his 
professional  work.  The  course  is  three  years  in 
duration  and  the  work  is  intensive.  Those  who 
pass  the  examinations  are  commissioned  as 
second-lieutenants  after  they  receive  the  Medi- 
cal Degree  and  are  then  sent  to  the  Military 
Hospital,  Val  de  Grace,  in  Paris,  where  they 
receive  practical  instruction  for  eight  months 
and  are  then  assigned  to  regiments  and  ranked 
in  accordance  with  their  standing.  Promotion 
to  the  grade  of  first-lieutenant  is  automatic 
after  one  year,  or  four  months  after  the  course 
at  Val  de  Grace,  and  relative  standing  is  de- 
pendent on  the  grading  in  the  final  examinatiom 

4d 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

in  this  hospital.  Promotion  thereafter  is  bj 
selection  rather  than  by  seniority,  but  no  one 
can  skip  a  grade  and,  unless  an  officer  has  shown 
some  unusual  aptitude  or  brilliance,  it  is  not 
usual  that  he  be  advanced  over  the  heads  of 
many  above  him.  There  are  authorized  one 
thousand  Dentists,  who  are  not  commissioned, 
and  the  Army  Nurse  Corps  is  fixed  at  one  thou- 
sand also.  There  is  agitation  to  increase  the 
number  of  Dentists  and  naturally  the  number 
of  nurses  is  entirely  insufficient  to  meet  the  de- 
mands of  war-time  conditions. 

The  direction  of  this  service  lies  in  the  hands 
of  a  civilian  who  is  a  member  of  the  French 
Cabinet.  He  is  titled  the  "Under  Secretary  of 
State  for  Sanitation,"  and  in  spite  of  the  "Un- 
der" in  his  designation  he  is  practically  autony- 
mous  in  his  position  and  his  decisions  in  his  own 
Department  carry  authority.  Prior  to  the  war 
one  of  the  General  Officers  of  the  regular  Medi- 
cal Service  held  this  position,  and  at  present 
two  of  them  act  as  aids  to  the  Director.  I  think 
it  is  doubtful  as  to  whether  the  change  in  direc- 

50 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

tion  has  been  a  gain  and  that  it  is  problematic 
as  to  whether  the  system  does  not  sooner  or 
later  revert  to  its  first  status.  The  head  of  all 
the  service  centers  with  the  Director  in  Paris 
and  branches  throughout  the  different  armies 
and  regions  which  are  affected. 

The  Service  of  Supply,  as  well  as  that  of 
replacement  of  personnel,  is  based  on  the  plan  of 
echelon  and  a  marked  feature  is  the  numerous  re- 
serves of  both  men  and  material  which  are  main* 
tained  at  various  points  in  the  chain  which 
stretches  from  the  Interior  to  the  ultimate  limits 
of  the  fighting  line.  It  simplifies  the  system  of 
supply,  for  all  that  is  required  of  any  supply 
depot  under  this  system  is  to  see  that  the  supply 
in  the  depot  is  kept  at  the  normal  level,  and  each 
one  calls  on  the  one  behind  it  to  replenish  what 
has  gone  on  to  the  unit  in  front.  Thus,  the 
Brigade  supplies  the  Regiment  and  draws  on 
the  Division  for  replacement ;  the  Division,  after 
supplying  the  Brigade,  depends  on  the  Army 
to  refill  its  stores  and  so  back  to  the  Central 
supply  Depots  in  the  larger  cities  of  the  Zone 

51 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

of  the  Interior.  This  obviates  the  necessity 
lor  the  repeated  transfer  of  requisitions  and  the 
chance  of  delay  due  to  congestion  in  traffic  or 
delay  in  approval  or  other  usual  causes.  It 
is  simple  and  effective. 

It  is  difficult  to  give  in  so  brief  a  space  any 
adequate  idea  of  the  complexity  of  the  ma- 
chinery which  is  evoked  in  the  care  of  an  army 
nnder  field  conditions.  We  must  understand 
that  it  is  not  only  the  question  of  caring  for 
the  wounded  man.  That  is  the  apex  of  the 
pyramid,  the  object  of  the  entire  procedure,  but 
as  we  multiply  the  one  man  by  "X"  the  pyramid 
descends  to  its  base  with  a  wide  angle  and  we 
find  that  many  questions  which  do  not  at  first 
occur  to  us  have  to  be  considered.  Transpor- 
tation, supply,  records,  construction,  feeding, 
preventive  medicine  and  many  other  things  fall 
in  line  to  make  up  the  perplexing  whole.  And, 
withal,  everything  must  function  with  a  certain 
degree  of  smoothness  and  be  fairly  automatic, 
for  unless  the  wastage  is  promptly  and  care- 
fully made  good  there  will  not  be  fighting  men 

52 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

enough  to  carry  on  and  the  State  will  have  to 
divert  too  much  of  its  energy  to  the  care  of 
its  non-efFectives. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  magnitude  of  the  task 
which  falls  to  the  lot  of  the  Sanitary  Service 
in  war,  I  may  state  that  in  one  operation  wliich 
lasted  for  three  days  the  casualties  were  esti- 
mated at  90,000.  A  proportion  of  these  were 
killed,  to  be  sure,  but  even  that  involved  duty 
in  burial  and  in  completion  of  the  records,  and 
the  remaining  fraction  leaves  us  with  the  im- 
pression that  although  it  is  a  tremendous  task 
to  maneuver  in  battle  large  masses  of  troops, 
it  is  by  no  means  easy  to  collect  and  put  in 
shape  again  those  who  have  fallen  in  the  at- 
tack. 

The  accompanying  diagram  shows  graphi- 
cally, and  in  a  general  manner,  the  path  fol- 
lowed by  the  wounded  man  from  the  first  line  to 
whatever  point  he  be  destined.  The  work  of  the 
front  line  trench  is  carried  out  by  the  Regi- 
mental personnel,  both  Commissioned  and  en- 
listed, and  this  personnel  is  aufirmented  by  the 

63 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

band,  pro^dded  there  be  one  In  the  Regiment. 
The  duty  of  the  Regimental  personnel  is  fin- 
ished when  the  wounded  are  delivered  to  the 
First  Aid  Post,  which  has  its  own  personnel 
for  the  care  of  the  cases  which  come  to  it.  The 
route  of  the  wounded  soldier  from  this  point 
may  be  by  several  means  of  transportation.  If 
he  is  to  be  carried  by  hand,  this  duty  is  taken 
up  here  by  the  Divisional  Group  of  Litter 
Bearers,  which  is  distributed  in  accordance  with 
need  by  the  Division  Surgeon.  He  may  go  di- 
rect to  the  Automobile  Surgical  Ambulance  if 
he  is  a  bad  case,  or  he  may  be  taken  to  one  of 
the  Ambulances  of  the  first  line  to  be  shifted 
possibly  from  there  to  the  unit  just  referred  to. 
If  able  to  walk,  his  problem  is  simplified  and  he 
makes  his  way  on  foot.  In  certain  instances 
it  is  possible  to  evacuate  the  first  aid  posts  by 
automobile  direct,  and  sometimes  when  it  is  not 
possible  for  the  automobiles  to  approach  the 
Post,  a  Collecting  Station  (not  shown  in  the 
Diagram)  is  established  in  a  sheltered  position 
in  the  rear  of  it  and  the  wounded  evacuated  to 

54 


Q.yMbul*ne& 


tl 


o 

C 


,^  "lif-  Line  Am6. 


C2Ti>v6M7a.Tice5  j^ 

Ovpoh    of.  ■  ^ 


Jr«i    J 


M  tfctp, fcJ    Center^ 


^±1  \    1    1    I    I   I   1   !  

rTetnporary  "Temp,  H»mp, 


Oxtt.   Hoi  p. 


Hosp 
CLior.  Ho%p, 

Diagram  Illustrating  the  Routes  of  Evacuation  op 
THE  Wounded  from  the  Front  Lines  to  thb  Zones 
OF  THfl  Interior. 


55 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

it  by  hand  litter  and  there  picked  up  by  the 
automobiles.  It  is  not  unusual  in  a  busy  sector 
to  keep  an  automobile  constantly  stationed  at 
such  a  point  to  take  care  of  those  who  need 
inmiediate  transfer.  It  must  be  remembered 
also  that  all  the  units  of  the  trench  line  system 
are  intimately  connected  by  telephone,  and  that 
it  is  not  a  difficult  matter  therefore  to  call  for 
transportation  when  required. 

The  automobiles  which  are  charged  with  this 
duty  of  evacuation  are  furnished  by  one  or  more 
sections  which  are  ordered  to  certain  sectors  for 
duty  in  accordance  with  the  intensity  of  the 
action.  A  Section  consists  of  twenty  cars  and 
the  capacity  of  the  cars  runs  from  three  lying 
cases  for  the  Ford  type  to  five  in  the  latest  type 
of  the  French  ambulance  with  the  Kelner  type 
body.  With  the  capacity  known  and  the  mile- 
age to  be  covered  in  the  run  and  the  average 
speed  possible,  a  pretty  accurate  estimate  can 
be  made  as  to  the  time  necessary  for  the  evac- 
uation of  any  number  of  wounded.  The  Firs* 
Line  Ambulances  may  retain  their  mobile  func- 

56 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

tion  and  serve  merely  to  care  for  the  wounded 
until  they  are  taken  to  units  further  in  the 
rear,  or  they  may  become  fixed,  the  "Ambulance 
Imobilizee"  in  French  terminology.  To  accom- 
plish this  latter  end  a  supplementary  section, 
known  as  the  section  of  hospitalization,  is  sent 
up  from  the  Divisional  reserve  and  added  to  the 
mobile  ambulance.  It  comprises  both  addi- 
tional personnel  and  materiel  and  serves  to 
transform  the  mobile  unit,  with  its  compara- 
tively meager  equipment,  into  the  equivalent  of 
one  of  our  Field  Hospitals. 

When  the  necessity  has  passed,  this  reinforc- 
ing personnel  and  materiel  is  returned  to  the 
Division  reserve  and  the  Ambulance  reverts  to 
a  mobile  status  again.  The  Automobile  Sur- 
gical Ambulance  and  the  first  line  ambulances 
send  cases  to  the  Evacuation  Hospital,  which 
may  be  at  a  Railhead  and  must  of  necessity  be 
on  a  railroad.  These  Evacuation  Hospitals 
are  made  up  of  two  sections,  either  one  of  which 
may  function  independently,  or  both  combine  to 
make  up  a  more  formal  organization.     If  they 

57 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

function  separately,  their  province  is  more 
that  of  a  collecting  and  sorting  point  than  of 
a  Hospital  proper.  I  have  spoken  of  this  in 
preceding  pages,  and  of  the  important  part 
which  these  hospitals  now  play  in  the  Sanitary 
scheme. 

At  the  Evacuation  Hospital,  of  whichever 
type  it  be,  the  wounded  are  disposed  of  in  one 
of  several  ways.  If  there  is  a  hospital  section 
attached  to  the  Hospital,  they  may  be  trans- 
ferred to  it  for  treatment  until  they  are  in 
condition  to  be  sent  back  to  their  units  again. 
There  may  be  a  Hospital  Center  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  in  that  event  they  may  be  trans- 
ferred by  automobile  to  one  of  the  hospitals 
which  compose  it.  There  are  usually  one  or  two 
Ambulances  in  the  neighborhood  also  which  can 
care  for  a  certain  proportion  of  cases.  In  con- 
nection with  this  hospital  there  is  also  a  Depot 
of  Convalescents  and  "Eclopp^s,"  as  the  French 
call  those  who  have  not  much  the  matter  with 
them.  This  Depot  serves  to  relieve  the  hospital 
of  those  who  are  well  enough  to  dispense  with 

58 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

formal  care  but  not  yet  strong  enough  to  go 
back  to  active  service.  In  addition  to  this  there 
is  at  each  Evacuation  Hospital  the  materiel 
and  personnel  to  make  up  two  Sanitary  trains. 
At  this  Hospital  the  Sanitary  trains  are  load- 
ed and  routed  to  their  destinations.  There  is 
usually  a  daily  train,  and  in  times  of  activity 
the  number  increases.  These  trains  are  made 
up  so  that  there  is  the  minimum  amount  of 
transfer  of  the  wounded  carried  by  them.  So 
far  as  possible  trainloads  are  made  up  to  go 
entire  to  some  definite  point  and  thus  it  is  not 
necessary  to  break  out  cars  for  different  points 
nor  to  disturb  the  wounded  until  they  have 
reached  the  point  of  final  debarkation.  This 
simplifies  matters  considerably,  and  makes  for 
the  comfort  and  well-being  of  the  wounded.  Be- 
fore a  train  is  started  word  is  sent  to  the  point 
to  which  it  is  routed  and  arrangements  are 
made  there  to  meet  it  at  the  hour  specified  and 
to  dispose  of  its  load  in  accordance  with  the 
number  of  vacant  beds  in  the  hospitals  of  the 
Region.     The  Director  of  the  Line  of  Com- 

59 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

munication  is  kept  constantly  informed  by  the 
Surgeons  in  charge  of  the  different  hospitals 
and  Regions  of  the  number  of  available  beds  in 
each  one  so  that  in  routing  his  trainloads  of 
wounded  he  knows  exactly  what  he  can  count 
on  in  the  way  of  resources  in  any  one  place. 
This  system  has  grown  up  with  the  experience 
in  the  transfer  of  wounded  and  is  a  long  step 
ahead  of  the  rather  crude  and  somewhat  hap- 
hazard method  which  prevailed  at  the  outbreak 
of  hostilities.  The  wounded  shipped  by  train 
to  the  interior  are  inspected  at  various  points. 
Particularly  at  the  "Gare  Regulatrice,"  or  Reg- 
ulating Station,  which  usually  is  at  the  junc- 
tion of  the  Zone  of  the  Armies  and  the  Zone 
of  the  Interior.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Medical 
Officer  in  charge  at  this  point  to  see  that  no 
case  goes  beyond  it  which  should  be  retained 
in  the  Zone  of  the  Armies  and  that  those  who 
are  forwarded  are  in  proper  shape  for  the 
journey.  Now  that  the  Sanitary  Trains  are 
more  formal  in  character  and  manned  by  an  ex- 
perienced personnel  this  duty  is  less  exacting 

60 


v. 

^,     ^            ^  A«| 

r* 

Red  Cross  Nurses  at  a  Railway  Station  Canteex  Giv- 
ing Coffee  to  the  Wounded. 


Tent  Wards,  Showing  One  of  the  Type  of  Tent  Used 

BY  the  French. 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

than  when  the  Regulating  Station  stood  as  the 
real  check  on  what  had  been  done  at  the  point 
farther  forward. 

On  the  line  of  Railroad  at  appropriatelj 
spaced  intervals  are  Railroad  Rest  Stations 
and  Railroad  Canteens.  Stops  are  made 
at  these  and  the  wounded  fed  and  ex- 
amination made  of  their  condition.  These  can- 
teens are  in  charge  of  the  Red  Cross  and  the 
feeding  is  quickly  and  systematically  done  so 
that  there  is  little  delay  in  the  progress  of  the 
wounded.  A  train  may  be  diverted  to  one  of 
the  Regional  Hospitals,  or  group  of  Hospitals 
as  shown  in  the  Diagram,  or  it  may  continue 
to  a  large  town  which  is  a  center  for  a  number 
of  Hospitals  where  there  is  provision  for  not 
only  general  care  of  the  wounded,  but  for  the 
various  specialties  which  may  be  needed  by  in- 
dividual cases.  In  addition  to  the  two  Zones 
listed  in  the  Diagram,  there  is  another  known 
as  the  Zone  of  the  Line  of  Communication. 
This  comprises  the  Railroad  and  the  adjuncts 
to  it.     That  is  to  say,  the  right  of  way,  the 

63 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

TarioiLi  Rest  Stations  and  Canteens  and  the 
Hospitals  which  are  connected  directly  with  it. 
The  administration  of  this  Zone  is  an  irapor- 
tant  post  and  upon  the  efficiency  of  the  Director 
depends  to  a  large  extent  the  smooth  function- 
ing of  the  service  further  to  the  front.  It  is 
presided  over  bj  a  General  Officer  and  he  has 
hig  staff  which  includes  a  Chief  Surgeon  and 
yarious  Inspectors  who  are  charged  with  the 
duty  of  seeing  that  all  measures  dealing  with 
the  care  of  the  wounded  and  sick  are  properly 
performed.  This  includes  not  only  the  ques- 
tion of  transfer,  but  that  of  supply  of  pei^ 
sonnel  and  materiel  and  the  maintaining  of 
proper  reserves  at  the  designated  points. 

The  diagram  does  not  show  the  full  com- 
plexity of  this  service  in  the  Zone  of  the  Line 
of  Communication,  for  there  are  many  minor 
points  which,  while  essential  to  the  proper  func- 
tioning of  the  whole,  are  too  much  a  question 
of  detail  to  be  brought  out  in  a  general  scheme. 
A  little  thought  will  make  evident  what  they 
are:  the  question  of  the  channels  of  the  vari- 

64 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

ous  orders,  which  secure  an  orderly  correlation 
of  the  various  fractions  which  go  to  make  up 
the  whole ;  the  maintenance  of  the  railroad  sys- 
tem which  is  charged  with  the  transfer  of  the 
wounded ;  the  provision  of  the  proper  quota  of 
rolling  stock  for  this  end  in  each  part  of  the 
combatant  area;  the  management  of  the  auto- 
mobile and  horse-drawn  transport;  the  assign- 
ment of  personnel  to  the  various  units.  These 
and  many  more  go  to  make  up  a  problem  which 
requires  careful  and  intelligent  handling  to  en- 
sure good  results. 

We,  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  hare 
been  rather  prone  to  plume  ourselves  a 
good  deal  on  our  superiority  in  the 
matter  of  Rail  transport  and  to  look  on  the 
Continental  system  as  perhaps  inferior  to  our 
own.  Shortly  before  I  left  France  something 
was  brought  to  my  attention  which  made  me 
doubt  whether  this  supposed  superiority  of  ours 
was  in  reality  so  very  marked.  It  became  nec- 
essary to  arrange  for  the  transport  of  a  large 
number  of  troops  and  the  movement  was  to  be 

65 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

executed  with  as  little  delay  as  practicable. 
Word  was  sent  by  the  Director  of  Railways  to 
the  Greneral  Manager  of  one  of  the  Railway 
systems,  stating  the  requirements  and  asking 
how  soon  the  Company  would  be  able  to  start 
trains,  what  headway  they  could  be  run  at  after 
they  had  started  and  for  how  long  a  period  the 
service  could  be  maintained  at  that,  the  maxi- 
mum rate.  The  answer  came  back  very 
promptly  that  the  Company  would  be  ready  to 
start  the  first  train  in  three  hours,  that  after 
the  first  train  had  left  they  would  run  others 
with  half  an  hour's  headway,  or  as  fast  as  they 
could  be  loaded,  and  that  they  would  maintain 
this  service  and  schedule  as  long  as  was  neces- 
sary. The  Company  not  only  made  this  state- 
ment, but  they  lived  up  to  it.  It  seems  to  me 
that  when  we  consider  that  this  was  done  in  a 
country  in  a  state  of  war  and  with  necessarily 
depleted  equipment,  we  might  consider  it  as  a 
very  creditable  piece  of  railroading  not  only 
for  Continental  France,  but  for  our  own  coun- 
try. 

66 


GENERAL  SANITARY  SERVICE 

The  Sanitary  Train  has  been  a  source  of 
some  embarrassment  for  the  French.  The  Euro- 
pean type  of  car  does  not  lend  itself  well  to  the 
purpose,  and  they  have  been  obliged  to  exer- 
cise a  good  deal  of  ingenuity  to  meet  the  situa- 
tion. The  Continental  "carriage"  is  short, 
about  half  the  length  of  our  regular  passenger 
car,  many  of  them  have  separate  compartments 
opening  with  side-doors  and  no  communication 
one  with  the  other.  The  use  of  this  type  has 
the  disadvantage  of  interrupting  communica- 
tion through  the  train  which  is  a  serious  objec- 
tion for  a  service  of  this  kind.  Some  of  these 
cars  have  been  adapted  by  the  use  of  special 
apparatus  and  with  telephone  connection,  but 
the  more  practical  type  is  the  baggage  car, 
which  in  addition  to  the  side-doors  has  an  end 
door  also  which  does  away  with  the  bad  feature 
of  the  other  class.  There  are  several  trains 
made  up  of  the  long  baggage  cars  of  the  Inter- 
national Type  which  run  on  the  Expresses 
from  Paris  to  Nice,  and  these  easily  lend  them- 

67 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

selves  to  the  required  purpose  but  are  too  few 
in  number  to  take  care  of  all  the  traffic. 

Any  attempt  at  description  of  the  various 
phases  which  go  to  make  up  the  complex  whole 
of  this  system  of  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded 
must  inevitably  lead  one  through  a  maze  of  de- 
tail. Each  step  carries  one  to  a  fork  where 
the  subject  branches  and  each  branch  further 
subdivides  until  one  unexpectedly  finds  himself 
perched  on  the  ultimate  twig  and  perhaps  far 
from  the  object  which  he  set  out  to  pursue. 

The  rather  brief  summary  which  I  have  at- 
tempted will,  I  think,  serve  to  show  the  magni- 
tude of  the  task,  and  the  thought  and  patient 
care  which  has  been  exercised  in  working  out 
and  putting  into  operation  the  present  system 
which,  while  probably  susceptible  of  further 
refinement,  is  still  wonderfully  efficient  in  the 
care  of  large  numbers  of  helpless  men. 


CHAPTER  III 

HOSPITAI.S    OF    THE   INTERIOE 

Ceetain  terms  have  by  constant  use  come  to 
have  an  accepted  and  clear  meaning  to  those 
who  are  engaged  in  the  serious  game  of  war  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

Our  interest  in  the  affairs  "over  there"  has 
brought  a  knowledge  of  these  terms  overseas 
to  many  of  us,  but  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  state 
in  a  general  way  how  the  territory  of  France 
is  divided  for  the  time  and  uses  of  war. 

To  begin  with,  there  are  two  general  divi- 
sions. A  line  is  drawn,  not  in  accordance  with 
any  fixed  geographic  boundaries,  but  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  exigencies  of  the  situation, 
and  all  territory  on  the  side  nearest  the  enemy 
constitutes  "The  Zone  of  the  Armies."  That 
behind  this  is  the  "Zone  of  the  Interior."  While 
all  France  is  really  under  Military  control,  the 

69 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

Zone  of  the  Armies  is  the  special  province  of 
the  Military.  All  entrance  into  it,  all  exit  from 
it  and  all  movement  in  it  is  governed  and  sanc- 
tioned by  the  "Grand  Quartier  General,"  or 
Great  General  Staff,  which  is  presided  over  by 
the  "G^neralissime,"  or  Supreme  Commander 
of  the  fighting  forces ;  at  the  present  writing, 
General  Foch.  Incidentally,  that  name  is  pro- 
nounced "Fosh,"  with  the  o  long  as  in  "Oh." 
This  Zone  of  the  Armies  has  other  subdivisions 
which  will  be  spoken  of  later. 

The  Zone  of  the  Interior  comprises  the  rest 
of  the  country  that  is  not  needed  by  the  active 
War  Lords  and  is  presided  over  by  the  Civil 
authorities  so  far  as  ordinary  matters  go,  and 
by  the  IVIinister  of  War  when  it  comes  to  a 
question  of  strictly  Military  jurisdiction. 

In  tliis  Zone  of  the  Interior  are  the  ultimate 
repair  shops  for  the  damaged  human  machines 
that  have  been  put  out  of  commission  at  the 
front.  They  filter  back  to  these  just  as  pow- 
ders are  graded  through  a  series  of  sieves  of 
varying  mesh  and  it  results  that  only  the  very 

70 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

severely  hurt  (from  an  economic  point  of  view) 
come  to  them. 

By  this  I  mean  that  when  there  is  any  prob- 
abihty  of  returning  a  soldier  to  the  firing  line 
as  an  effective  within  a  certain  length  of  time 
he  is  held  within  the  Zone  of  the  Armies,  at 
one  of  the  large  Hospitals  there.  When  he  has 
lost  a  leg,  an  arm,  or  is  otherwise  permanently 
disabled,  or  when  his  cure  must  take  more  than 
the  allotted  time,  he  goes  back  to  the  Zone  of 
the  Interior  and  is  placed  in  the  Hospital  best 
suited  to  his  particular  needs. 

Three  years  of  war  have  made  a  vast  dif- 
ference in  the  orderly  disposition  of  cases  as 
well  as  in  other  matters  and  now  the  French 
have  in  addition  to  their  general  hospitals  a 
chain  of  others  fitted  for  the  treatment  of  all 
sorts  of  specialties. 

There  are  fracture  hospitals,  hospitals  for 
head  cases  and  brain  surgery,  those  for  the 
burned,  for  nervous  diseases  and  a  host  of 
others,  and  in  this  way  each  man  is  assured  of 
coming  under   the   charge   of  the  practitioner 

71 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

who  makes  a  specialty  of  caring  for  his  par- 
ticular malady  or  injury  instead  of  carrying 
it  as  a  "side  line"  with  his  general  work. 

These  hospitals  are  now  carefully  organized 
and  under  strict  Military  control.  After  the 
battle  of  the  Mame,  when  the  French  were 
swamped  by  the  wounded,  they  had  to  make 
use  of  every  facility  and  the  consequence  was 
that  a  good  many  private  hospitals  were  opened 
by  well-meaning  but  not  always  responsible  peo- 
ple and  that  the  army  suffered  in  consequence. 
In  some  the  care  was  not  all  that  it  should  have 
been  and  in  others  the  lack  of  discipline  and 
careful  check  resulted  in  the  loss  to  the  fight- 
ing force  of  a  very  appreciable  number  of  men. 
Realizing  this,  the  French  shut  out  these  pri- 
vate institutions  and  recognized  only  those 
which  were  under  the  three  authorized  Societies 
which  go  to  make  up  the  French  Red  Cross. 
With  this  innovation  things  moved  in  a  more 
orderly  manner  and  to-day  the  progress  of  a 
wounded  man  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  con- 
jecture   and    his    location    and    condition    are 

72 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

known  at  all  times  to  the  War  Department. 

One  of  the  Hospitals  of  this  class  which,  while 
not  a  large  one,  must  always  be  of  interest  to 
Americans,  is  what  was  formerly  the  Ameri- 
can Ambulance  Hospital  at  Neuilly,  a  suburb 
of  Paris.  This  was  started  in  the  early  days 
of  1914  by  Americans  then  resident  in  Paris. 
It  was  situated  in  a  school  building  which  at 
that  time  was  just  completed  and  grew  from 
modest  beginnings  to  an  institution  of  some 
700  beds. 

In  addition  to  taking  care  of  the  wounded 
it  served  the  admirable  purpose  of  training 
many  young  medical  men  in  the  new  surgery 
which  this  new  method  of  conflict  has  made  es- 
sential. In  it  our  Yankee  specialty  of  Den- 
tistry took  on  a  new  dignity  and  under  the  able 
leadership  of  Doctor  Hayes  in  conjunction 
with  the  Surgical  service,  some  very  wonderful 
work  was  done,  and  is  being  done,  in  the  res- 
toration to  a  semblance  of  something  human 
those  suffering  from  the  terribly  disfiguring 
wounds  of  the  face. 

73 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

It  is  a  little  difBcult  in  the  quiet  walks  of 
peace  to  realize  just  what  can  happen  to  a 
man's  face  as  the  result  of  shell  wound  and  still 
leave  him  alive.  Alive,  but  a  living  horror  to  all 
who  see  him  and  he  himself,  a  despondent 
wretch.  If  you  can  figure  to  yourself  what  a 
man  is  with  no  nose,  with  no  lower  jaw,  or  only 
half  a  one,  with  a  face  that  looks  like  a  man- 
gled beefsteak,  you  can  appreciate  what  it 
means  to  patiently  build  him  up  again  almost 
from  the  beginning  and  turn  him  out,  scarred 
and  seamed  to  be  sure,  but  not  an  object  that 
children  would  run  from  screaming.  It  is  a 
work  that  calls  for  infinite  patience,  both  on 
the  part  of  the  operator  and  the  wounded  man, 
for  this  is  not  done  at  one  fell  swoop,  but  means 
many  weary  months  and  sometimes  as  many  as 
twenty  or  thirty  operations.  They  borrow 
pieces  of  rib  and  bits  of  shin-bone  and  make 
new  noses  of  them;  they  twist  and  pull  and 
coax  adjacent  tissue  until  it  covers  the  gaps 
and  they  bridge  in  vacant  areas  by  skin  grafts 
until  finally  the  unfortunate  wretch  comes  forth 

74 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

somewhere  in  the  shape  that  God  made  him.  It 
is  the  very  antithesis  of  war ;  an  upbuilding  to 
meet  a  tearing  down:  construction  versus  de- 
struction, and  is  a  work  that  any  member  of 
the  profession  cannot  but  regard  with  pride. 

I  had  been  one  day  at  one  of  these  interest- 
ing if  sanguinary  operations  and  at  its  coik- 
clusion  went  into  one  of  the  "face  wards"  to 
see  the  progress  in  a  case  which  I  had  seen  oper- 
ated on  some  time  before. 

In  one  of  the  beds,  splinted  and  bandaged, 
I  noticed  a  cheerful  looking  mulatto,  with  the 
French  War  Cross  on  the  left  breast  of  his 
gray  pajamas.  His  white  teeth  flashed  in 
laughter,  and  he  was  chattering  away  in  rapid 
"Poilu"  French  to  his  neighbor,  a  youngster 
who  looked  as  though  he  might  have  come  from 
the  South  of  France — the  "Midi"— that  land  of 
sunshine  and  fair  skies — the  country  of  "Tar- 
tarin  of  Tarascon." 

Of  course  it  is  absurd,  but  I  think  we  of  the 
United  States  are  apt  to  assume  that  all  the 
Sons  of  Ham  are  compatriots  of  ours.     We  do 

75 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

not  quite  realize  that  France's  colonial  hold- 
ings have  given  her  also  a  proportion  of  the 
dark  aliens.  Anyhow,  the  brown-skinned  sol- 
dier looked  so  much  like  home  that,  after  wan- 
dering by  his  bed  several  times,  I  wheeled  on 
sudden  impulse  and,  standing  at  the  foot,  said, 
"Boy,  what's  your  name?"  He  ducked  his 
woolly  head  and  with  a  flash  of  teeth,  chuckled 
in  a  tone  that  meant  some  place  south  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line,  "Sam  Brown,  suh,  Sam  Brown, 
tha's  ma  name." 

I  walked  around  and  sat  down  in  the  chair 
between  him  and  his  French  neighbor  and  con- 
tinued my  investigations.  "For  the  love  of 
Mike,  Sam  Brown,  where  did  you  come  from, 
how  did  you  get  here  and  what  are  you  doing?" 

"Me,  Major?  Ah  come  fum  Galt;^5ton, 
Texas."  (I  knew  he  did,  or  he  would  not  have 
put  the  accent  there.)  "Come  ovah  on  a  cahgo 
boat,  'bout  a  yeah  and  a  half  ago,  and  I  'listed 
up  with  the  French  ahmy  and  I'se  a  sho-nuf 
Poilu  now  and  they  done  give  me  the  Croix  de 
Guerre.     Yas,  suh,  I'se  a  French  soldier." 

76 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

And  I  told  Sam  Brown  that  I  had  been  sta- 
tioned in  his  Galveston  when  I  got  my  order 
to  come  and  see  what  he  and  the  other  French 
poilus  were  doing,  and  we  chattered  of  people 
there,  and  he  told  me  how  he  was  wounded  on 
the  Somme  ("Sum,"  he  called  it),  and  the  lit- 
tle French  neighbor  from  the  Midi  chipped  in, 
and  we  gossiped  away,  sometimes  all  three  in 
French  and  sometimes  just  Sam  Brown  and  I — 
two  soldiers  from  the  Great  Republics — in  plain 
American,  not  English,  and  the  little  French- 
man from  the  Midi  told  me  what  a  good  "Co- 
pain"  Sam  Brown  was,  and  Sam  returned  the 
compliment,  and  we  three  had  a  delightful 
twenty  minutes.  I  left  them  money  for  cig- 
arettes, wished  them  both  "Bonne  chance"  and 
left  as  Sam  Brown  assured  me,  "Ef  you  hadn't 
a  spoke  to  me,  Majah,  I  should  have  spoke 
to  you,  'cause  even  if  I  is  a  Frenchman,  that 
unifohm  looks  mighty  good  to  me." 

In  answer  to  my  inquiries,  they  told  me  that 
Sam  Brown  was  a  brave  soldier  and  a  cheer- 
ful patient. 

77 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

That  is  one  of  the  saving  graces  of  these 
#ollections  of  maimed  and  injured  men — al- 
ways somewhere  in  the  atmosphere  of  pain  pa- 
tiently borne,  of  suffering  endured  without  a 
cry — there  is  a  rift  in  the  clouds,  and  the  sun- 
ghine  of  human  interest,  of  gentle  comedy 
breaks  through  to  turn  to  gold  for  a  minute 
the  red  stains  on  the  bandages. 

It  is  not  hard  to  learn  a  lesson  in  cheerful- 
ness from  these  wounded  men,  and  I  can  think 
of  no  better  cure  for  the  man  or  woman  who 
deplores  his  luck  than  to  watch  some  man 
lopped  of  an  arm  or  a  leg,  as  he  patiently 
tries  to  make  the  best  of  his  artificial  substi- 
tute and  with  a  cheerful  grin  swears  queer 
good-natured  soldier  swear-words,  both  at  its 
stubbornness  and  his  own  clumsy  efforts. 

Suppose,  Mr.  Man,  that  the  next  time  you 
jire  peevish  because  James  has  left  a  bit  of  shell 
in  your  breakfast  egg,  you  figure  on  what  it 
would  mean  if  you  had  no  James — only  an 
awkward  left  hand  and  arm  to  do  his  job. 

I  think  one  of  the  best  examples  of  the  un- 

78 


Mutilated  Soldier  Learning  to  Engrave  with  an 
Artificial   Hand. 


Soldier  with  Double  Amputation  of  the  Arms,  Show- 
ing How  ]\IucH  May  Be  Accomplished  with  the 
Artificial  Hands. 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

failing  spirit  of  these  wounded  men  was  at  th« 
"Hopital  du  Pantheon"  over  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Seine  in  Paris.  It  was  in  the  old  quar- 
ter and  in  a  building  that  had  for  many  years 
been  used  for  Hospital  purposes. 

I  was  invited  there  by  a  surgeon  renowned 
for  his  skill  in  surgery  of  the  head.  The  case 
was  a  man  who  had  been  wounded  by  a  high 
explosive  shell  and  had  a  fragment  of  the  sheU 
casing  in  his  brain,  in  the  middle  line  and  about 
halfway  from  forehead  to  the  back  of  his  head. 
As  a  consequence  of  this  unsought  intruder  he 
was  developing  a  paralysis  of  arms  and  legs 
and  it  was  considered  essential  for  his  well- 
being  that  the  fragment  be  removed. 

He  was  a  husky  peasant,  and  aside  from  the 
halt  in  his  gait  as  he  entered  the  operating 
room  and  the  look  of  embarrassment  at  the 
sight  of  the  medical  men  there  assembled  to 
see  his  operation,  there  was  little  to  differ- 
entiate him  from  the  average  "Poilu"  one  sees 
on  the  Boulevards  of  Paris.  Due  to  the  fact 
that   this   was   an   operation   on   the  brain   he 

81 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

did  not  have,  in  his  ordeal,  the  benefit  of  ether 
©r  chloroform.  It  was,  with  the  exception  of 
the  physically  deadening  effect  of  the  cocaine, 
what  one  of  our  leading  papers  would  denounce 
as  "vivisection." 

He  came  into  the  operating  amphitheater 
with  proper  dignity,  was  seated  at  the  end  of 
the  table  on  a  stool,  his  head  bent  forward  and 
lest  in  a  moment  of  uncontrolled  nervousness 
he  might  rebel,  his  wrists  were  lashed  and  he 
bowed  his  head  forward  on  the  table. 

The  whole  thing  was  done  under  local  anaes- 
thesia (cocaine  or  one  of  its  derivatives)  and 
he  was  entirely  conscious  during  the  whole 
time  of  the  operation.  This  consisted  in  open- 
ing the  skull,  cutting  through  the  membranes  of 
the  brain  and  then  extracting  the  fragment  of 
ahell  which  had  been  the  cause  of  his  trouble. 
This  fragment  was  in  the  brain  itself.  He 
was  perfectly  cognizant  of  what  was  going  on 
during  the  entire  time  of  the  operation,  but  he 
never  moved:  whether  he  was  in  pain  or  not, 
no  one  save  he  himself  knew.   When  everything 

82 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

yras  completed  and  he  raised  his  face,  streaked 
with  the  blood  which  had  run  down  from  the 
wound  in  his  scalp,  the  first  thing  he  did  was 
to  turn  to  the  Surgeon  who  had  operated  on 
him  and  say  with  steady  quiet  courtesy,  ''My 
Doctor,  I  thank  you  a  thousand  times."  A 
little  later  he  walked,  serene  and  unshaken,  back 
to  his  ward  and  his  bed.  It  seems  to  me  a 
hard  task  to  beat  down  a  National  spirit  which 
is  made  up  of  such  men  as  this,  and  he  was  by 
no  means  exceptional  in  his  quiet  fortitude.  I 
am  glad  to  say  that  he  made  a  perfect  recov- 
ery and  has  probably  long  since  gone  back  to 
that  Hell  of  the  front  lines,  there  to  do  his  bit 
and  wait  what  fate  shall  bring  him. 

I  spent  three  weeks  in  another  hospital  in  a 
little  town  not  a  great  way  from  Paris,  on  the 
Seine,  where  almost  all  the  work  was  that  of 
the  treatment  of  fracture  cases.  "Fracture" — 
a  broken  bone,  brings  to  most  of  us  the  picture 
of  a  distorted  limb,  but  not  as  an  invariable 
accompaniment,  torn  and  mangled  flesh  as  well. 
Fracture  as  the  result  of  artillery  fire  means 

83 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

always  this  damage  to  the  flesh  and  almost  in- 
variably an  infection  of  some  sort.  And  just 
as  the  fracture  itself  is  complicated,  so  in  the 
same  ratio  is  the  treatment.  It  needs  skill 
and  ingenuity  and  patience  and  a  large  amount 
of  that  sixth  sense  which  God  has  given  to 
women — intuition. 

Dr.  Joseph  A.  Blake  presided  over  this 
Hospital  and  in  his  constant  dealing  with  this 
class  of  injury  had  evolved  an  ingenious  and 
most  efficient  system  of  splints  and  suspension 
which  made  for  quick  and  satisfactory  healing 
and  left  the  patient  free  of  the  torture  of  some 
of  the  older  and  more  cumbrous   apparatus. 

The  wards  devoted  entirely  to  the  fracture 
cases  were  a  forest  of  uprights  and  cross-pieces 
traversed  in  all  directions  by  cords  running 
through  pulleys  and  at  the  ends  of  the  cords 
dangled  sandbags  and  weights  like  some  queer 
fruit  in  this  conventional  grove.  It  was  known 
familiarly  as  "The  Machine  Shop"  and  refer- 
ence to  the  two  accompanying  pictures  bears 
out,  I  think,  the  aptness  of  the  nickname. 

84 


Fracture  Ward  in   Blake*s  Hospital,  Commonly 
Known  There  as  "The  Machine  Shop." 


I  Mi^^ 


A  Fracture  Ward. 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

The  cases  which  reached  this  hospital  were 
of  the  class  I  have  referred  to — those  which 
were  either  hopelessly  out  of  the  game,  or  would 
require  more  than  the  allotted  five  weeks  for 
their  restoration  to  duty.  It  was  also  a  "sur- 
gical center."  That  is  to  say,  the  operating 
was  done  in  this  one  hospital  save  for  minor 
work,  and  the  cases  as  they  improved  were 
transferred  to  one  of  several  others  in  the  vi- 
cinity where  they  finished  their  course  and 
were  sent  either  forward  for  further  service,  or 
back  for  discharge  from  the  army.  I  saw  here 
an  interesting  case.  The  man  was  apparently 
shot  directly  through  the  heart  according  to 
the  testimony  of  the  wounds  of  entrance  and 
exit.  Yet  he  walked  a  mile  before  he  received 
his  first  dressing  and  recovered  after  an  un- 
eventful course.  Of  course  it  is  possible  that 
there  was  one  of  those  curious  deflections  of 
the  bullet  by  the  ribs,  but  even  so,  and  grant- 
ing that  the  heart  was  untouched,  it  was  re- 
markable that  the  man  was  able  to  walk  the 

87 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

distance  that  he  did  and  that  his  recovery  was 
so  uneventful. 

As  in  all  the  hospitals  at  that  time  the  work 
had  been  systematized  so  that  from  the  time 
of  the  reception  of  a  wounded  man  until  the 
date  of  his  transfer  or  discharge  there  was 
practically  no  lost  motion. 

The  wounded   for  this   particular  chain   of 

hospitals   were   received   at   ,   where   they 

came  by  train  from  the  hospitals  nearer  the 
line.  It  was  interesting  to  see  the  methodical 
way  in  which  they  were  received  and  distributed. 
I  went  over  to  the  receiving  point  once  to  see 
the  process.  A  telegram  had  been  received 
saying  that  at  such  an  hour  a  train  of  89 
wounded  would  arrive.  This  was  received  long 
enough  in  advance  to  make  it  possible  to  deter- 
mine as  to  what  proportion  of  cases  should  be 
sent  to  each  of  the  hospitals  of  the  group  and 
the  various  ones  were  notified  that  they  would 
be  called  on  that  afternoon  to  receive  so  many 
wounded  men.  At  the  appointed  time  the  am- 
bulances of  the  group  were  at  the  station  and 

88 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

Blake  and  other  representatives  to  make  the 
apportioning.  The  train  was  a  "permanent" 
Sanitary  train,  made  up  of  the  short  conti- 
nental box  cars,  each  one  fitted  with  apparatus 
to  hold  eight  cases  on  stretchers.  The  plat- 
form of  the  freight  station  where  they  were  un- 
loaded was  level  with  the  car  doors  so  that  re- 
moval of  the  stretchers  was  an  easy  matter. 

On  the  cement  platfrom  were  three  posts, 
each  one  bearing  the  initial  of  the  hospital 
which  it  represented.  When  the  train  stopped 
all  the  cases  which  were  able  to  walk  were 
herded  together  in  one  place  to  wait  their  dis- 
tribution. The  cases  on  the  stretchers  were 
brought  out  of  the  cars  and  placed  in  a  long 
row  on  the  platform.  Each  one  of  the  wounded 
bore  on  one  of  his  coat  buttons  the  diagnosis 
tag  from  the  front  which  showed  what  his  in- 
jury was  and  what  had  so  far  been  done  for 
him.  Blake,  who  was  the  "Medecin  Chef,"  ex- 
amined the  cases,  beginning  with  one  end  of  the 
line,  and  decided  to  what  hospital  each  one 
was   to  be  sent.     He  stated  the  name   of  the 

89 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

Hospital  and  an  orderly  who  was  with  him  fas- 
tened to  another  button  a  tag  which  bore  the 
initial  of  that  hospital.  At  once  two  French 
orderlies  took  the  litter  and  carried  it  to  the 
post  bearing  the  same  initial,  and  there  the 
ambulance  orderlies  collected  the  cases,  put 
them  in  the  waiting  ambulances  and  they  were 
carried  to  their  destination.  The  cases  which 
could  walk  were  dealt  with  in  the  same  way 
save  that  they  went  to  the  lettered  posts  under 
their  own  steam.  There  were  in  attendance 
women  of  the  French  Red  Cross  who  gave  the 
men  coffee,  wine,  oranges  and  cigarettes. 

The  distribution  was  systematic  and  rapid, 
the  process  beginning  as  soon  as  the  wounded 
were  unloaded  from  the  train,  and  some  of  those 
first  taken  off  were  on  their  way  to  clean  sheets 
and  good  care  before  the  last  of  them  had  left 
the  train. 

The  entire  process  did  not  take  more  than 
twenty  minutes  and  seemed  very  business-like 
and  practical.     It  was,  in  reality,  the  "stock 

00 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

yard"  method  and  made  for  an  accurate  and 
rapid  sorting  of  the  wounded. 

On  a  man's  arrival  at  the  hospital  he  was 
first  cleaned  up,  and  then,  if  not  too  fatigued, 
taken  to  the  X-ray  room,  where  a  careful  ex- 
amination of  his  injury  was  made  and  recorded 
for  the  surgeon  who  would  receive  him  as  an 
operative  case.  The  majority  of  cases  were  not 
photographed,  in  the  actual  sense  of  the  word. 
They  were  examined  by  the  fluoroscope,  which 
enabled  the  man  in  charge  of  the  X-ray  work 
to  determine  the  nature  of  the  lesion  and  to 
furnish  such  data  as  would  be  required  for 
operation.  Cases  out  of  the  ordinary  run,  or 
those  which  showed  pieces  of  shell  remaining 
in  the  tissues,  were  photographed  and  a  chart 
also  made  showing  the  exact  location  of  the 
foreign  body.  Surgery  of  the  present  time  is 
very  dependent  on  the  X-ray,  and  not  only  on 
that  but  on  various  types  of  what  are  known 
as  "localizers." 

There  are  several  types  of  these :  one  a  mag- 
net, which  when  brought  in  proximity  to  a  piece 

91 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

of  steel  is  strong  enough  to  cause  a  movement 
of  the  fragment  which  is  perceptible  to  the 
fingers  on  the  part.  Others  which  have  a  tele- 
phone adjustment  for  the  ears  of  the  operator 
and  a  probe  which  on  contact  with  the  shell 
fragment  or  bullet  gives  a  distinct  clicking 
sound,  the  loudness  or  faintness  of  the  click  in- 
dicating to  the  surgeon  whether  he  is  "hot  or 
cold"  as  we  used  to  say  in  the  childhood  game. 
From  the  X-ray  room  the  wounded  man  goes 
to  the  ward  for  rest  unless  his  case  is  urgent, 
in  which  event  he  is  transferred  direct  to  the 
operating  theater  and  the  necessary  work  done 
for  him  at  once. 

One  is  apt  to  think  of  a  hospital  as  a  neces- 
sarily depressing  place,  the  abode  of  suffering 
and  the  place  of  not  infrequent  death.  That 
is  true  as  far  as  the  suffering  goes,  not  so 
now,  fortunately,  as  to  the  frequent  death,  al- 
though with  war  wounds  there  is  no  escape  from 
a  certain  percentage  of  fatalities.  The  one 
thing  which  cannot  be  killed  is  the  innate  cheer- 
fulness and  good  humor  of  the  French  soldier. 

92 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

He  may  be  drawn  and  white  from  the  pain  of 
a  dressing  or  the  ache  of  the  operation,  but 
give  him  time  to  compose  the  quivering  nerves 
and  his  gayety  comes  to  the  surface  again  and 
he  is  ready  to  poke  fun  at  himself  or  any  one 
else — and  any  one  is  fair  game.  There  was 
one  youngster  in  the  ''Machine  Shop,"  which  I 
have  alluded  to,  who  interested  me,  and  I  used 
to  stop  and  talk  to  him  every  day  in  my  rounds 
of  the  ward.  He  was  laid  up  with  a  shell  frac- 
ture of  his  left  leg  and  right  arm  and  was  swung 
in  a  maze  of  pulley  ropes  and  weights.  Despite 
his  incumbrances  he  was  always  cheery  and 
managed  to  do  for  himself  very  handily.  We 
used  to  chat  each  morning;  I  in  my  best  French 
and  he  in  the  rapid  talk  of  the  Poilu  with  more 
or  less  slang  intermixed.  After  I  had  known 
him  for  about  a  week,  he  turned  to  me  one  day 
and  archly  asked  me,  ''Say,  Major,  what's 
the  matter  with  us  talkin'  United  States  ?^^  We 
did  after  that,  and  I  found  that  the  young 
scoundrel  had  been  bom  in  New  York  of  French 
parents,  lived  there  all  his  nineteen  years  and 

9S 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

had  come  to  France  because  he  felt  the  call 
of  the  Fatherland.  He  had  been  amusing  him- 
self in  a  good-humored  way  with  my  imperfect 
French,  and  I  suppose  had  been  chuckling  over 
the  fact  that  he  was  as  much  an  American  as 
I.  I  daresay  it  amused  his  comrades,  too.  It 
did  not  at  all  interrupt  our  amicable  relations 
and  the  only  difference  it  made  was  that  there- 
after I  deprived  him  of  the  satisfaction  of  lis- 
tening to  my  attempts  in  his  own  French 
tongue. 

There  was,  for  the  other  side  of  the  picture, 
one  death  in  that  ward  which  seemed  sadly 
pathetic  to  me.  He  was  a  strong  peasant, 
about  forty  years  of  age  and  so  badly  injured 
that  at  his  age  he  had  not  the  vitality  to  fight 
it  through.  I  watched  him  go  along  the  road 
that  leads  over  the  big  divide,  each  morning 
finding  him  a  little  weaker  in  spite  of  his  evi- 
dent desire  to  win  back  to  a  maimed  existence. 

One  morning  I  came  into  the  ward  to  find  his 
people  there  and  to  be  told  by  the  ward  sur- 
geon that  he  had  only  a  little  time  to  last.   The 

94 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

Doctor  had  no  French  and  asked  me  to  do 
what  I  could  to  comfort  the  poor  souls  who 
had  been  summoned  there  bj  the  news  that 
their  son  and  husband  was  to  give  the  great 
gift  for  his  country. 

I  did  the  best  I  could,  and  I  trust  that  what 
I  said  to  them  helped  a  little.  They  were  pa- 
thetic peasant  folk  in  awkward  black,  with 
lined  brown  faces  and  hands  hardened  by  much 
toil.  They  were  dignified  in  their  grief  and 
made  no  outcry;  just  the  dumb  look  of  suffer- 
ing in  their  faces  as  the  breath  halted  and  the 
laboring  chest  rose  and  fell  and  finally  became 
still.  One  could  know  what  it  meant  to  them; 
the  loss  of  a  good  son,  a  well-loved  husband. 
And  yet  when  it  was  all  over  and  the  poor  tor- 
tured soul  had  gone  to  the  God  who  created  it, 
they  turned  to  me  and,  with  fine  courtes}'', 
thanked  me  for  my  words  of  sympathy,  and  as 
they  turned  to  leave  the  ward  the  old  father 
turned  to  me  with  his  patient  face,  and  straight- 
ening his  bent  shoulders,  looked  at  me  with  the 
tears  in  his  eyes   and  simply  said,  *'Eh  bien, 

95 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

Monsieur  le  Majeur,  c'est  pour  la  France."  In 
spite  of  grief  and  the  sense  of  los5  they  could 
yet  realize  that  the  life  they  had  loved  was 
given  for  a  cause  that  was  sacred  in  their  eyes 
— for  their  country. 

A  hospital  in  a  small  town  rather  dominates 
the  life  of  the  village :  everything  centers  about 
it  and  in  the  absence  of  the  industry  of  peace 
times  it  is  an  important  factor  in  an  economic 
sense.  In  the  village  where  this  hospital  was 
situated,  as  in  all  the  others  in  France,  man 
power  was  at  a  minimum,  and  among  the  rest 
the  village  doctor  and  the  pharmacist  had  gone 
to  war.  As  a  consequence  the  good  people  were 
dependent  on  the  personnel  of  the  hospital  for 
their  care  in  sickness  and  for  the  remedies 
which  they  required.  This  care  is  everywhere 
freely  given  and  in  similar  conditions  it  is  as 
much  the  duty  of  the  Medical  force  of  the  hos- 
pital to  look  out  for  the  civilians  as  to  care 
for  the  wounded.  It  is  fortunate  that  it  is  so, 
for  with  no  other  help  available  there  would 
be  much  hardship  among  those  who  had  only 

96 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

to  watch  and  wait  for  the  return  of  the  men 
at  the  front. 

In  view  of  this,  there  grows  up  a  close  re- 
lationship between  the  inhabitants  and  those 
who  care  for  the  wounded.  During  my  three 
weeks  in  this  little  town  I  had  a  room  in  a  quaint 
little  French  inn  and  in  a  very  short  time  I  was 
on  friendly  terms  not  only  with  the  old  man 
and  his  wife  who  presided  over  it,  but  had  a 
speaking  acquaintance  with  most  of  the  people 
of  the  village.  They  quickly  learned  what  my 
uniform  was  and,  although  at  that  time  I  was 
a  neutral — apparently — I  met  with  nothing 
save  a  fine  and  simple  courtesy. 

The  French  peasant  class  are  as  a  rule  a  cour- 
teous people  and  transactions  with  them  carry 
much  more  ceremony  than  that  with  which  we 
endow  our  daily  comings  and  goings  in  these 
busy  United  States.  For  example,  the  purchase 
of  my  daily  paper  from  the  old  lady  who  kept 
the  stationer  shop  was  formal  to  this  extent.  I 
entered  the  shop,  tipped  my  cap  and  said, 
"Good  morning,   Madame,   it  is   a   fine  day." 

97 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

"Good  morning,  Monsieur  le  Majeur;  it  is  in- 
deed." "The  Matin,  if  you  please,  Madame." 
"But  certainly,  Monsieur,  and  thank  you." 
Then  I  gave  her  a  fifty  centime  piece  and  she 
said  "Thank  you.  Monsieur."  When  she  gave 
me  the  change  I  said  "Thank  you,  Madame," 
and  I  bowed  myself  out  with  a  duet  of  "Bon 
jour,  Madame,"  and  "Bon  jour,  Monsieur  le 
Majeur."  I  suppose  that  we  have  not  time  for 
all  that  in  our  own  busy  materialistic  Republic, 
but  it  lends  a  touch  of  friendliness  to  the  minor 
things  of  life  and  is  pleasant  when  you  know  it. 
Probably  one  of  the  best  known  and  certainly 
one  of  the  oldest  hospitals  in  Paris  given  over 
to  Military  use  is  the  Val  de  Grace.  There  is 
some  very  fine  surgery  of  the  face  done  there 
by  Dr.  Moreston  and  the  progress  of  the  cases 
is  illustrated  not  only  by  photographs  at  dif- 
ferent stages,  but  there  is  in  the  museum  a 
collection  of  masks  made  in  wax  and  colored, 
which  though  grewsome  in  themselves  are  very 
beautifully  done  and  illustrate  very  strikingly 
what    can    be    accomplished    in    this    difficult 

98 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

branch  of  surgery.  In  addition  to  caring  for 
sick  and  wounded  this  hospital  has  other  func- 
tions. The  young  men  who  have  finished  the 
course  at  the  school  at  Lyons  in  preparation 
for  entry  into  the  regular  Medical  Corps  of  the 
Army  are  sent  there  for  a  final  course  before 
being  sent  out  to  active  service,  and,  further- 
more, the  army  nurses  are  also  trained  in  the 
same  institution.  Here,  also,  is  situated  the 
Laboratory  where  the  serum  used  to  protect 
against  Typhoid  and  the  two  analogous  fevers, 
the  para-typhoids,  is  prepared. 

This  is  a  very  modem  and  up-to-date  plant, 
and  if  we  consider  that  all  the  men  of  the  French 
army  have  been  immunized  with  serum  manu- 
factured here  it  is  easy  to  comprehend  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  work.  At  the  time  I  visited  the 
laboratory,  in  company  with  Vincent,  who  is 
the  head  of  it,  he  told  me  that  they  were  not 
only  turning  out  all  that  was  required  for  their 
own  forces,  but  were  supplying  Belgium,  Rus- 
sia, and  sending  some  to  Italy.  The  serum  has 
proved  its  efficiency,  for  since  the  early  days  of 

99 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

the  war,  before  all  the  army  had  been  inocu- 
lated, typhoid  has  continued  to  be  a  negligible 
cause  of  illness.  That  it  is  potent  I  have  cause 
to  know  from  personal  experience,  for  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  I  had  gone  through  typhoid 
as  a  young  man  and  that  I  was  beyond  the 
required  age,  I  took  the  inoculation — and 
cussed  both  Vincent  and  his  serum,  for  in 
addition  to  its  protective  power  it  has  a 
very  unholy  "kick."  If  any  suffering  citizen 
is  protected  against  enteric  fever  I  surely 
should  be. 

There  is,  near  Paris,  in  the  suburb  of  Issy-les- 
Molineaux,  a  hospital  which  is  interesting  both 
on  account  of  the  character  of  the  injuries 
treated  in  it  and  from  the  results  obtained  by 
the  treatment.  It  is  the  "Hospital  San  Nico- 
las" and  in  it  a  service  has  been  turned  over  to 
Dr.  Barthe-de-Sandfort  for  the  treatment  of 
men  who  have  been  burned. 

There  are  a  number  of  these  cases  arising  in 
the  Military  service,  and  contrary  to  expecta- 
tions,  the  majority   of  them   arc   from   other 

100 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

causes  than  the  German  **Liquid  Fire."  The 
cases  treated  from  this  cause  are  rather  infre- 
quent. Why  this  is  so  I  do  not  definitely  know, 
unless  it  be  that  those  who  are  burned  in  this 
manner  generally  succumb.  It  may  be  men- 
tioned in  passing  that  the  Allies  do  not  view 
this  form  of  warfare  very  seriously;  they  take 
it  as  a  manifestation  of  German  frightfulness 
and  state  that  it  has  little  real  tactical  advan- 
tage. 

There  were  about  two  hundred  beds  occupied 
by  the  burned  cases  at  the  time  that  I  visite(| 
the  hospital  at  Issy  and  together  with  them  were 
a  number  of  cases  of  "Trench  Foot"  which  were 
stated  to  do  well  under  the  treatment.  Trench 
Foot  is  much  like  frostbite  and  the  resultant 
injury  much  resembles  it.  I  saw  during  my 
visit  there  burns  of  all  degrees  of  severity,  and 
was  impressed  by  the  apparent  comfort  of  the 
method  for  the  patients  and  the  excellent  results 
obtained.  The  remedy  itself  is  proprietary; 
that  is  to  say,  Barthe-de-Sandfort  refuses  to 
disclose  the  formula,  holding  it   for  financial 

101 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

gain.  Under  the  ethics  of  the  European  coun- 
tries this  is  viewed  under  a  different  light  than 
with  us. 

The  treatment  consists  in  the  application,  to 
the  dried  surface  of  the  burned  area,  of  a  liquid 
preparation  which  contains  paraffine  and  some 
other  undetermined  ingredients.  This  seals  up 
the  burned  area  and  healing  goes  on  under  it 
with  great  comfort  to  the  patient  and  with  a 
most  excellent  final  result.  There  is  less  scar 
resulting  and  consequently  less  deformity. 
Some  of  the  completed  cases  were  remarkable 
when  compared  with  their  condition  on  entry 
in  the  hospital. 

Whatever  be  the  ethics  in  regard  to  the  treat- 
ment, it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  little  doubt 
that  it  is  an  effective  method  of  dealing  with  a 
distressing  form  of  injury. 

I  quote  this  method  mainly  as  an  evidence  of 
what  the  changed  conditions  of  modern  warfare 
have  demanded  in  advance  in  Medical  and  Sur- 
gical procedure.  The  increased  skill  in  inflict- 
ing bodily  injury  has  evoked  a  measure  of  in- 

102 


HOSPITALS  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

genuity  in  the  science  of  repair,  and  this  is 
manifested  not  only  in  this  matter  of  the  treat- 
ment of  burns,  but  in  the  many  other  special 
methods  and  devices  for  the  better  repair  of 
the  wounds  of  war. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   ZONE   OF    THE   ARMIES 

As  I  have  mentioned  before,  continental 
France  is  divided  by  an  arbitrary  line  into  two 
general  divisions — the  Zone  of  the  Interior  and 
the  Zone  of  the  Armies.  In  this  latter  Zone 
are  the  majority  of  the  Military  Hospitals,  not 
all  of  which  are  subject  to  gunfire  since  this 
zone  extends  from  the  first  lines  back  to  the 
ultimate  edge  where  the  two  zones  join.  This 
Zone  of  the  Armies  is  further  subdivided  into 
three  regions :  the  Zone  of  the  Advance,  which, 
as  its  name  implies,  is  that  of  the  actual  fight- 
ing, the  place  of  the  combat:  the  Zone  of  the 
Rear  where  reserves  of  personnel  and  materiel 
are  maintained  for  the  reinforcement  of  those 
at  the  front,  and  the  Zone  of  the  Line  of  Com- 
munication, which  is  the  traffic  route  by  which 

104 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

these    reserves    are   brought   forward    and    by 
which  the  wastage  is  sent  back  for  repair. 

The  character  of  the  Medical  service,  of  the 
Hospitals,  depends  on  which  one  of  the  three 
different  subdivisions  they  happen  to  be  located 
in,  the  more  formal  as  a  matter  of  course  being 
more  removed  from  the  actual  fighting.  Some 
of  the  hospitals  of  the  latter  type  are  of  par- 
ticular interest  and  have  occupied  a  more  or 
less  prominent  place  in  the  public  press  and 
have  come  to  be  pretty  well  known  in  this  man- 
ner to  the  average  reader  of  the  news.  One  of 
these  is  Carrel's  Hospital  at  Compiegne. 

Most  of  us  know  of  Carrel :  of  his  association 
with  the  Rockefeller  Foundation ;  that  he  won 
the  Nobel  prize,  and  that  recently  he  has  estab- 
lished in  New  York  a  hospital  for  the  demon- 
stration of  his  method  of  the  treatment  of  in- 
fected wounds.  It  would  not,  I  presume,  be 
good  taste  for  me  to  discuss  the  pros  and  cons 
of  his  methods  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  that  is 
hardly  a  function  of  any  writing  as  non-tech- 
nical as  these  pages. 

106 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  spend  some  time 
with  him  in  the  winter  of  1916  and  I  found  my 
visit  both  pleasant  and  profitable.  In  speaking 
of  it  I  quote  from  a  running  diary  which  I  kept 
during  my  tour  in  France,  as  events  recorded 
therein  are  more  sharp  than  if  I  trust  to  a 
recollection  blurred  somewhat  by  the  passage  of 
two  years'  time  and  many  other  events  which 
have  occurred  since  that  visit. 

"The  21  and  %%  of  February  I  devoted 
to  a  vigilant  and  persistent  pursuit  of  a  'Camet 
des  Etrangers'  in  order  that  I  might  have  the 
right  to  come  here  to  Compiegne. 

'*I  finally  succeeded  in  running  it  down  in 
some  Nth  Bureau  of  the  French  War  Office  on 
the  Boulevard  Saint  Germain.  A  'Garnet  des 
Etrangers'  is  your  Passport  into  the  Zone  of 
the  Armies.  It  is  a  little  red  book,  in  the  front 
of  which  is  pasted  the  worst  possible  postage 
stamp  picture  of  yourself  and  under  it  inscribed 
a  kennel  register  of  yourself  which  takes  you 
back  as  many  generations  as  you  can  remember. 
The  rest  of  the  book  is  devoted,  with  French 

106 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

thoroughness,  to  information  on  every  subject 
except  how  to  beat  an  egg  in  hot  weather  and 
contains  forms  appropriate  to  every  occasion 
except,  perhaps,  a  christening.  Without  it  you 
cannot  go  anywhere,  except  to  bed,  and  you 
must  do  that  within  the  limits  of  the  Zone  of  the 
Interior. 

"When  the  proper  form  is  duly  filled  out, 
stamped  and  sealed  by  the  *Grand  Quartier 
General'  you  can  go — exactly  where  it  says  you 
can :  if  you  go  anywhere  else  you  are  'off  side' 
and  liable  to  be  set  back  and  severely  penalized. 
Also  you  must  show  it  to  everybody  on  demand, 
save  the  Fire  Department,  and  I  am  not  quite 
sure  about  them.  I  had  to  show  mine  four 
times  between  Paris  and  Compiegne  and  each 
official  looked  more  suspicious  than  the  last 
until  I  finally  began  to  doubt  my  own  integrity 
and  became  as  red  as  the  book  each  time  I  pro- 
duced it.  You  see  I  was  in  citizen's  clothes,  as 
a  representative  of  a  neutral  Government,  and 
it  is  hard  for  any  Frenchman  to  understand 
why  any  person  described  as  a  man  of  Military 

107 


THE  DOCTOR^S  PART 

rank  should  be  concealed  in  a  brown  sack  suit. 

"I  left  Paris  at  8 :05  from  the  Gare  du  Nord. 
The  morning  was  cold  and  dreary  and  the  out- 
look from  the  train  soggy  and  disconsolate. 
The  Oise  was  bank  full  and  overflowing  and 
every  one  looked  bedraggled  and  down  at  the 
heels.  Even  the  red  pantaloons  of  the  old  ter- 
ritorial soldiers  who  guarded  the  right  of  way 
looked  less  cheerful  than  they  should.  At 
Creil,  which  was  at  that  time  the  dividing  line 
between  the  two  general  Zones,  a  very  thorough 
canvass  was  made  of  all  passengers  on  the  train 
to  make  sure  that  no  unauthorized  person  was 
irrupting  into  forbidden  territory. 

"I  arrived  at  Compiegne  at  about  11  and 
came  up  to  the  hotel  followed  by  a  hoary  old 
Frenchman  who  puffed  along  with  my  luggage 
and  had  such  a  luxuriant  growth  of  whiskers 
that  all  he  needed  was  three  decoys  and  a  cup 
of  water  to  make  him  look  like  a  duck  blind. 
Compiegne  has  been  shelled  by  German  280  and 
320  mm.  guns  from  time  to  time  and  there  are 
ruined  houses  to  bear  testimony  to  the  fact. 

108 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

**Established  at  the  Hotel  Palace,  I  went  to 
take  my  letter  of  introduction  to  Carrel  at  his 
hospital  at  *Rond  Royal.'  This  was  in  the 
piping  times  of  peace  a  hotel,  but  like  many 
structures  of  that  kind  it  has  changed  its  sphere 
of  usefulness  as  the  normal  life  of  the  state 
has  been  turned  upside  down.  The  hospital  is 
not  a  large  one,  having  a  capacity  of  something 
like  a  hundred  beds,  and  Carrel  does  not  claim 
for  it  any  great  value  as  a  large  factor  in  the 
care  of  the  wounded.  It  is  in  reality  his  labora- 
tory, where  with  the  wounded  for  his  material 
he  is  working  out  the  best  method,  in  accordance 
with  his  views  and  experience,  of  putting  them 
Tjdck  again  in  the  minimum  of  time,  healed  and 
fit  for  more  of  war's  alarms.  The  place  is  par- 
tially supported  by  an  appropriation  from  the 
Rockefeller  Institute,  so  that  things  are  on  a 
more  easy  scale  than  if  it  were  dependent  alto- 
gether on  the  resources  of  sadly  tried  France. 

"There  was  plenty  of  everything:  beds, 
nurses,  linen  and  all  the  essentials  which  make 
for  the  comfort  and  well  being  of  the  wounded. 

109 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

I  could  not  but  feel  that  the  soldier  who  was 
brought  here  to  be  cured  of  his  hurts  was  par- 
ticularly favored. 

"Carrel  himself  does  no  operative  work.  He 
is  the  general  administrator  of  the  institution 
and  has  a  supervising  eye  on  the  cases  and  the 
progress  of  the  method  which  he  is  advocating 
in  the  disinfection  of  wounds.  Briefly,  and  not 
too  technically,  the  'Carrel-Dakin'  method  of 
treatment — sterilization,  he  calls  it — of  wounds 
consists  in  the  use  of  a  solution  of  hypochlorite 
of  soda.  It  is  a  use  of  what  is  analogous  to 
the  familiar  'Javelle  Water'  which  we  use  to 
take  spots  from  our  clothes  and  stains  from 
our  hands.  But  in  the  use  of  this,  according 
to  his  method,  there  is  no  haphazard  employ- 
ment of  the  chemical :  he  has  determined  exactly 
and  precisely  the  percentage  of  the  ingredients 
which  gives  the  best  result  and  any  departure 
from  the  established  proportion  will  not  pro- 
duce the  end  aimed  at. 

"The  primary  step  in  the  process  consists  in 
what   the   French   term,   'debridement'.      That 

110 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

word,  if  you  look  it  up  in  the  French  dictionary 
will  be  given  as  'taking  the  bridle  off  a  horse'. 
It  refers,  as  the  French  surgeons  employ  it,  to 
an  extensive  wound  of  operation.  They  open 
everything  up  wide,  clean  out  all  foreign  bodies 
and  torn  tissue  and  clots  of  blood  and  leave  no 
hidden  corners  for  the  malicious  germs  to  linger 
in.  It  is  rather  startling  at  first  sight,  but  if 
one  has  any  Jesuitical  tendencies  he  cannot  but 
believe  after  seeing  the  results,  that  'the  end 
justifies  the  means.'  Once  opened  up  and 
cleaned  out,  the  wound  is  kept  open  by  gauze 
packing  and  subjected  to  a  constant  bath  of 
the  Carrel  Solution.  This  is  fed  into  the  wound 
by  rubber  tubes  which  search  out  and  go  into 
all  the  ultimate  nooks  and  crannies  in  order  that 
there  may  be  no  area  which  is  not  constantly 
bathed  by  the  hypochlorite.  Dressings  are  at 
first  made  every  day  and  as  the  wound  becomes 
progressively  more  free  from  infection,  at  longer 
intervals.  Cultures  from  the  wounds  are  taken 
every  day  at  the  dressing  time  and  these  as  well 
as  the  temperature  and  the  clinical  symptoms 

111 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

are  the  index  of  progress.  When  the  culture 
is  negative,  that  is  to  say,  when  no  bacteria  are 
found  on  microscopic  examination  of  the  slide, 
the  drainage  is  removed  and  the  gaping  wound 
brought  together  by  strips  of  adhesive  tape, 
and  it  promptly  heals,  leaving  only  a  thin  red 
line  to  mark  the  injury.  Of  course  in  joint 
injuries  and  extensive  loss  of  bone  there  is  more 
marked  evidence  than  this,  but  in  all  the  cases 
I  saw  during  my  visit  healing  was  prompt  and 
sure.  The  question  of  the  adaptability  of  this 
method  for  all  wounds  is  not  one  to  be  discussed 
here. 

"Eight  in  the  morning  is  the  dressing  hour 
and  each  day  I  am  there  to  watch  the  work  and 
observe  the  progress  of  the  healing.  The  dress- 
ings are  most  carefully  done;  not  entrusted  to 
the  nurses,  but  done  by  the  surgeons  themselves 
with  due  and  strict  regard  to  modern  surgical 
requirements.  It  is  interesting  from  a  profes- 
sional standpoint,  albeit  a  little  sad,  this  patient 
dressing  of  the  pathetically  patient  wounded. 
There  is  one  for  whom  I  feel  a  particular  sym- 

112 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

pathy.  Robert  Deviennes,  he  is,  of  the  417th 
Infantry.  He  may  be  nineteen,  not  more:  a 
well  built,  good  looking  slip  of  a  French  lad 
with  dark  hair  and  eyes,  a  straight  little  nose 
and  a  facile  mouth  which  I  think  must  have  been 
merry  until  pain  and  constant  suffering  pulled 
the  corners  down  into  a  piteous  droop.  On  his 
left  leg  and  thigh  he  has  four  wounds  varying 
in  length  from  four  to  six  inches;  on  the  right 
leg,  the  ends  of  all  his  toes  are  shot  away  and 
on  the  same  thigh,  underneath,  is  a  wound  about 
fourteen  inches  long,  open  and  showing  the 
muscles  and  fascia.  If  you  want  to  know  what 
such  a  wound  looks  like,  go  buy  a  beefsteak  big 
enough  for  a  family  of  four  and  lay  it  on  the 
back  of  your  thigh  and  then  try  and  realize  that 
it  is  a  tender,  quivering  area.  He  has  two  other 
wounds  that  I  cannot  describe. 

''Each  morning  the  surgeons  pull  gauze  out 
of  and  push  gauze  into  all  those  eight  wounds 
and  sponge  them  and  dress  them.  And  Robert 
Deviennes,  of  the  417th  Infantry,  grips  the 
sides  of  his  white  iron  bed  and  the  dark  eyes 

113 


TH5-  DOCTOR'S  PART 

close  and  the  drooping  corners  of  his  mouth 
come  up  to  a  straight,  set  line  and  the  olive 
color  of  his  face  goes  a  little  gray  while  drops 
of  sweat  stand  out  Hke  tears  from  a  tortured 
system.  But  Robert  Deviennes,  of  the  417th 
Infantry,  does  not  whimper,  for  he  is  not  a  child, 
but  a  soldier  of  France,  and  he  knows  with  the 
knowledge  of  his  nineteen  years  how  to  bear  his 
cross  like  a  soldier.  And  these  clever  French 
surgeons  who  poke  and  prod  his  quivering  flesh 
are  making  him  whole  again  and  before  long  he 
will  take  his  knapsack  and  his  rifle  and  carry 
his  scars  back  to  the  trenches  to  chance  other 
shell  bursts  which  may  send  him  back  to  the 
hospital  at  Rond  Royal,  or  close  the  brave 
black  eyes  and  write  'finis'  across  the  book  of 
his  young  life.  I  wish  I  might  be  sure  that  I 
could  bear  so  uncomplainingly  the  ills  that 
cannot  make  him  cry. 

"They — the  wounded — are  a  singularly  un- 
complaining lot ;  it  is  the  exception  for  the  pain 
of  dressing  to  elicit  even  a  moan.  The  hands 
grip  tight  shut  and  their  faces  twist  in  silent 

114 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

protest,  but  they  keep  their  breath  to  breathe 
with  and  I  have  never  seen  one  flinch  or  move 
the  wounded  member,  no  matter  how  keen  the 
pain.  I  think  that  on  the  average,  they  are 
better  about  it  than  our  men.  Why,  I  do  not 
know,  for  I  am  sure  they  have  no  more  courage. 
"There  is  a  pathetic  dignity  about  the 
wounded  that  is  hard  to  describe.  Per  se,  the 
mutilations  are  grotesque,  but  one  seems  to 
see  through  them  and  beyond,  to  the  love  of 
country  that  has  made  them  run  these  risks, 
and  that,  I  think,  helps  sustain  them  through 
the  tiresome  painful  days  while  patient  nature 
fills  up  again  the  gaping  holes  and  seals  them 
with  the  flaming  scar  tissue  which  is  the  Red 
Badge  of  Courage  of  these,  the  'Blesses.'  And 
so  the  man  I  saw  this  morning  with  one  leg 
gone  just  below  the  knee  and  the  other  just  be- 
low the  hip  did  not  suggest  merely  the  crippled 
remnant  of  vigorous  manhood,  but  the  exponent 
of  fearless  self  sacrifice — of  duty  done  at  the 
expense  of  self  and  regardless  of  life  or  suf- 
fering. 

116 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

"This  afternoon  I  put  on  a  suit  of  olive  drab 
uniform  and  went  over  to  a  General  hospital 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  outside  of  Compiegnc. 
As  a  plain  citizen,  and  so  dressed  I  am  toler- 
ated, but  to  use  a  colloquial  expression,  I  do 
not  'cut  much  ice'.  To  be  anybody  nowadays 
in  embattled  France  you  must  have  better  cre- 
dentials than  a  brown  sack  suit  and  an  alpaca 
umbrella.  I  found  that  I  was  taken  much  more 
seriously  in  service  dress  than  as  an  unassuming 
citizen  of  the  Great  Republic. 

"I  was  presented  to  the  'Medecin  Chef  and 
he  showed  me  about  the  institution  and  answered 
my  questions  when  he  could  understand  them. 
It  was  'horse  and  horse'  anyhow,  for  sometimes 
when  he  understood  the  questions,  I  did  not 
understand  the  answers.  He  was  cheerfully 
polite  and  assured  me  that  my  French  was  quite 
creditable,  but  I  have  a  sneaking  idea  that  he 
had  his  fingers  crossed  and  was  making  mental 
reservations  all  the  time  he  was  complimenting 
me.  The  hospital  had  formerly  been  a  military 
barracks  and  was  a  big  affair  of  scattered  brick 

116 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

buildings  which  were  being  adapted  to  hospital 
use.  The  process  of  transformation  had  just 
been  started  and  there  was  much  to  be  done 
and  my  French  doctor  shrugged  his  shoulders 
and  deplored  that  I  could  not  have  made  my 
visit  a  little  later  when  he  had  been  able  to 
evolve  some  sort  of  order  out  of  the  general 
chaos  which  was  an  unavoidable  accompaniment 
of  the  change.  He  said  that  there  was  an  in- 
sufficiency of  many  things,  which  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  when  one  considers  the  burden  that 
the  State  has  had  to  assume  in  the  care  of  those 
who  have  been  hurt  in  battle.  It  is  the  invari- 
able and  inevitable  rule  apparently  that  no  gov- 
ernment can  be  up  to  par  in  the  treatment  of 
the  wounded.  It  seems  that  no  matter  what 
provisions  are  made  they  always  fall  more  or 
less  short  of  meeting  the  conditions  with  abso- 
lute satisfaction.  The  existence  of  the  Red 
Cross  is  evidence  of  that  fact:  given  perfect 
management,  their  function  would  be  nil. 

"There  were  about  1,400  sick  and  wounded  in 
the  hospital  that  day  and  I  was  told  that  the 

117 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

ultimate  capacity  would  be  nearly  double  that 
when  everything  was  in  order.  The  death  rate 
at  that  time  was  2%  for  the  Surgical  cases  and 
5%  for  the  Medical. 

"It  rained  all  the  time  I  was  there  and  the 
impression  of  the  rows  of  brick  barracks  was 
rather  cheerless  and  I  came  away  with  the  con- 
viction that  I  should  rather  win  back  to  health 
in  the  ward  at  Rond  Royal  than  in  this  huge 
home  of  the  wounded. 

"I  came  back  in  a  big  Military  motor  driven 
at  the  usual  rapid  rate  by  a  whiskered  'Poilu', 
who  told  me  among  other  things,  that  he  was 
convalescing  from  a  wound  and  soon  expected 
to  go  back  to  his  regiment  and  the  front.  He 
seemed  cheerfully  indifferent  about  it  and 
thanked  me  politely  for  the  pour  boire  which  I 
gave  him  *  for  the  wounded'.  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  he  put  an  entirely  personal  construc- 
tion on  that  phrase  in  consideration  of  his  own 
hurt,  and  I  have  also  a  sneaking  suspicion  that 
although  Major  Church  in  Service  Uniform 
rode  home  in  a  military  machine,  Major  Church 

118 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

in  civilian  clothes  could  have  walked  in  the  mud 
and  be  damned  to  him. 

"Madame  Carrel  has  donated  the  band  in- 
struments to  a  regiment  raised  here  and  this 
morning  we  went  down  to  the  Place  to  see  the 
regiment  march  away  to  the  front  and  the 
trenches,  and  many  of  them,  I  suppose  to  face 
their  Maker  in  another  world.  The  music  was 
spirited  and  the  men  looked  clean  and  rested 
and  very  workmanlike  in  their  horizon  blue  with 
full  kit  and  rifles  with  the  wicked  long  French 
bayonet  across  their  shoulders. 

"The  shuffling  throb  of  their  feet  on  the  old 
French  cobblestones  beat  out  an  accompani- 
ment to  the  blare  of  the  band  and  after  it  had 
passed,  with  the  head  of  the  column,  beyond 
hearing,  the  beat  of  the  marching  tread  sounded 
like  the  pulse  of  the  heart  of  France;  steady, 
strong  and  determined.  There  were  about  two 
thousand  of  them  and  they  made  a  long  line  as 
they  filed  in  column  of  fours  through  the  old 
square  and  past  Joan  of  Arc  who  stood  with 

119 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

her  bronze  hand  raised  to  salute  these  soldier 
sons  of  hers. 

"There  is  something  about  the  whispering 
rhythm  of  a  body  of  marching  men  that  always 
makes  my  heart  beat  a  little  faster.  It  may 
be  the  association,  but  there  is  a  swing  and  a 
time  to  it  that  is  almost  music  in  itself.  The 
stamp  of  heavy  shoes  on  earth  or  stone  marks 
the  bass  of  4/4  time:  the  brush  of  sleeves 
against  the  sides,  the  creak  of  leather  gear,  the 
mutter  of  low  talk  and  soft  laughter  are  the 
air  in  treble,  and  the  tinkle  of  metal  on  metal, 
of  bayonet  and  cup,  make  the  arpeggios,  the 
running  grace  notes  of  this  unwritten  tune  of 
the  fighting  men.  After  they  had  all  passed 
and  were  only  a  soft  echo  in  the  distance.  Doc- 
tor and  Madame  Carrel  and  Paul  UfFolz,  who, 
in  spite  of  the  strange  name,  wears  the  French 
blue  and  is  'Medecin  Principal  Premiere  Classe' 
and  Surgeon  of  the  —  Corps  which  is  sta- 
tioned here,  came  up  to  the  Hotel  and  had 
luncheon  as  my  guests.  It  is  interesting  to 
Itnow  intimately  a  man  so  eminent  in  his  pro- 

120 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

fession  as  Carrel.  He  is  short,  full  figured, 
well  set  up  and  fair.  He  is  quite  bald  and  has 
keen  blue  eyes  which  behind  their  heavy  lenses 
are  gravely  thoughtful  or  mirrors  of  mirth  as 
the  discourse  changes  from  sober  topics  to 
lighter  vein.  He  is  clean  shaven  and  has  an  at- 
tractive mouth  which  expresses  his  mood  equally 
with  his  eyes.  It  is  a  strong  face  and  an 
attractive  one. 

"We  talked  of  many  things ; — not  the  'ships 
and  shoes  and  sealing  wax  and  cabbages  and 
kings'  of  Alice  in  Wonderland,  but  of  Medicine 
and  the  wounded;  of  Military  procedure  as  it 
affects  our  profession;  of  French  politics  and 
American  necessities,  and  of  'T.  R.'  whom  they 
all  admired.  They  talked  in  slow  French  which 
I  understood,  and  in  rapid  French  which  I  did 
not,  and  Dr.  and  Madame  Carrel  to  me  in  de- 
lightful English  with  a  charming  French  accent. 
It  was  altogether  delightfully  informal  and 
human  and  I  felt  not  at  all  like  a  'looker  on  in 
Venice'  but  as  though  I  had  been  quite  admitted 
to  the  circle. 

121 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

"All  day  yesterday  the  sky  was  gray.  The 
wind  swept  in  gusts  from  the  North  and  whirled 
the  snow  in  glittering  'dust  devils'  across  the 
bare  expanse  of  the  Place  which  stretches  from 
my  window  over  to  the  great  Chateau  de  Com- 
piegne  which  faced  me  grim  and  inscrutable  in 
the  bleak  winter  twilight  of  northern  France. 
The  Chateau  is  now  a  Military  Hospital  for 
medical  cases.  The  tri-color  hangs  over  the 
gate  and  French  soldiers  are  on  guard  in  the 
courtyard,  and  sick  in  the  interior.  And  so 
the  summer  palace  of  the  kings  and  emperors 
has  come  under  the  rule  of  the  present  master 
of  France, — War,  with  all  its  stern  necessities 
to  satisfy.  I  wonder  if  the  shade  of  the  Em- 
press Marie  Louise  flits  through  the  salons 
which  once  were  hers,  but  now  are  wards  for 
the  descendants  of  the  soldiers  who  helped  to 
place  in  power  her  liege  lord,  the  great  Napo- 
leon? If  it  is  cold  here  in  Compiegne,  I  wonder 
what  it  is  out  in  front  twelve  kilometers  away 
where  'shelter'  means  protection  against  sudden 
death  and  not  from  cold:  where  light  comes  at 

122 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

night  from  star  rockets  and  the  angry  red  of 
shell  bursts:  where  men  stand  in  frozen  mud, 
sleep  in  caves  and  I  am  sure  cannot  be  ever 
warm.  At  twelve  I  was  wakened  by  the  roar 
of  iron  tires  on  the  cobbles  of  the  square  in 
front  of  my  window.  I  got  up  and  looked  out, 
but  Compiegne  is  dark  at  night  with  the  black- 
ness that  seeks  immunity  from  hostile  air  at- 
tack and  I  could  only  listen  and  guess.  I  know 
it  was  transportation,  and  I  think  there  was 
artillery  and  it  was  all  going  to  the  front.  It 
was  nearly  an  hour  in  passing  and  as  wagons 
make  about  two  miles  the  hour  that  would 
mean  a  good  sized  convoy.  At  six  this  morn- 
ing I  was  waked  again  by  drums  and  trumpets 
and  got  up  to  watch  with  sleepy  eyes  another 
regiment  file  out  up  the  fascinating  little  street 
which  is  the  way  to  *the  front'  and  which  is  at 
present  barred  to  me.  About  eleven  another 
convoy,  made  up  almost  entirely  of  Sanitary 
wagons,  stamped  with  the  Red  Cross,  rumbled 
out  and  all  afternoon  stray  wagons  and  auto- 
mobiles have  been  dodging  into  the  little  street, 

123 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

bound, — goodness  knows  where.  And  my 
'Garnet  des  Etrangers'  sends  me  home  to  Paris 
again  to-morrow.  Whether  this  is  a  normal 
movement  or  an  extension  of  the  action  raging 
at  Verdun  I  do  not  know." 

Another  Hospital  equally  well  known  with 
Carrel's  is  that  which  is  administered  by 
De  Page,  at  La  Panne  which  is  in  the  little 
remnant  which  remains  of  Belgium  on  the  North 
Sea.  De  Page's  Hospital  is  a  larger  plant  than 
the  one  at  Compiegne  and  is  universally  ad- 
mitted to  be  one  of  the  best  on  the  front.  It 
is  situated  within  easy  gun  fire  of  the  German 
lines  but  up  to  date  has  not  suffered  very 
severely,  although  both  shells  and  aeroplane 
bombs  have  fallen  on  it.  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
visiting  it  in  1916  and  came  away  impressed, 
as  I  am  sure  all  do  who  visit  it,  with  the  good 
class  of  work  done  there  and  the  completeness 
of  the  institution.  There  have  been  numerous 
descriptions  of  this  hospital  published  and  I  am 
afraid  that  if  I  undertook  the  same  task  I 
should  duplicate  what  has   already   been  well 

124 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

done.  La  Panne  in  itself  is  merely  a  large 
amount  of  sea  sand,  spread  in  a  beautiful  broad 
beach  along  the  ocean  front  and  back  from  that 
piled  in  irregular  dunes  and  sifted  in  a  fine 
powder  through  the  streets  of  the  village  to  clog 
the  footsteps  of  the  pedestrian.  The  Hospital 
has  as  its  nucleus  the  Hotel  Ocean,  a  typical 
summer  hotel,  and  about  it  are  clustered  the 
wards  and  other  buildings  which  go  to  make 
up  the  total  of  this  institution.  Due  to  the 
contour  of  the  ground,  it  has  not  been  feasible 
to  build  a  number  of  small  wards,  and  so  there 
are  several  of  100  bed  capacity.  These  seem 
unduly  large  to  one  accustomed  to  the  normal 
capacity  of  thirty  or  forty,  but  there  seemed 
to  be  no  difficulty  in  the  administration,  and  the 
wounded  get  well  in  them,  which  is  after  all  the 
principal  and  desired  function  of  any  unit  of 
this  kind. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  completeness  of  the 
plant  I  may  state  that  De  Page  maintains 
in  the  hospital,  as  a  part  of  it,  a  very  complete 
machine    shop    presided    over    by    competent 

125 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

mechanics,  and  that  they  not  only  repair  sur- 
gical instruments  and  appliances  which  are  used 
up  or  damaged  in  service,  but  they  also  make 
new  ones  and  exceedingly  good  ones  too.  This 
is  all  done  from  the  raw  material  and  is  a  great 
help  inasmuch  as  it  obviates  the  necessity  for 
ordering  from  an  outside  source  and  the  delay 
and  uncertainty  of  delivery  under  wartime  con- 
ditions. The  same  orderly  routine  is  in  evi- 
dence at  La  Panne  as  in  any  of  the  well  ar- 
ranged and  well  managed  hospitals  on  the 
Western  front.  The  wounded  come  in  to  a 
receiving  ward  and  follow  a  definite  channel  in 
accordance  with  their  needs.  It  is  what  I  have 
already  referred  to  as  the  "packing  house  sys- 
tem" and  is  based  on  the  division  of  labor ;  each 
place  is  charged  with  certain  duties  and  on 
completion  of  them  sends  the  patient  on  to  the 
next  section. 

De  Page  ranks  probably  as  the  foremost  sur- 
geon in  Belgium  and  has  associated  with  him  a 
corps  of  skillful  colleagues  and  assistants  and  a 
competent  nursing  force.     At  the  time  I  was 

126 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

there  a  certain  proportion  of  this  personnel, 
both  Medical  and  nursing,  was  made  up  of 
Americans,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Red  Cross, 
and  in  this  way  a  leaven  of  our  own  people  was 
being  instructed  in  the  ways  of  the  new  surgery 
of  the  wai  thus  to  serve  as  a  factor  in  spreading 
this  knowledge  through  the  body  of  those  who 
are  now  to  go  and  take  their  own  places  with 
our  own  fighting  force. 

On  a  Sunday  afternoon  while  I  was  there  a 
conference  of  the  Medical  Officers  of  the  Hos- 
pital and  of  the  surrounding  district  was  held 
in  one  of  the  large  buildings  adapted  to  the 
purpose.  There  were  about  two  hundred  and 
fifty  present;  Belgian  and  French,  and  I  felt 
in  a  decided  minority  as  the  only  representative 
of  the  United  States  Army. 

The  lecture  was  by  an  eminent  Professor, 
from  Ghent  I  think,  and  his  subject  was  "Evo- 
lution" but  truth  to  tell  I  was  more  interested 
in  watching  Queen  Elizabeth  of  Belgium,  who 
sat  about  four  feet  from  me,  than  in  the  fact 
that  I  might  have  been  developed  from  some  sort 

1^7 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

of  a  prior  form  of  protoplasmic  life.  She  is 
small,  sad  faced,  rather  good  looking  and  dig- 
nified, as  I  suppose  all  Queens  are.  She  re^ 
minded  me  a  little  of  Maude  Adams.  Alas,  I 
did  not  have  an  opportunity  to  meet  her  and 
I  suppose  I  shall  never  be  so  near  another 
Queen.  She  has  been  much  interested  in  this 
hospital  and  has  herself  nursed  there.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  Hospital  at  La  Panne  there  is  a 
large  bath  establishment  and  Laundry  which 
works  for  the  Belgian  Army.  The  bath  house 
provides  1,500  tub  and  shower  baths  daily  and 
any  one  who  has  ever  been  in  the  trenches  will 
know  what  a  factor  to  comfort  and  well  being 
this  is  to  the  dirty  wretch  who  comes  back  to 
the  rest  camp  thoroughly  dirty  and  also,  alas, 
generally  thoroughly  inhabited. 

The  laundry  works  for  75,000  men  and 
washes  16,000  pieces  daily.  When  you  con- 
sider that  in  addition  to  the  washing,  a  large 
proportion  of  the  clothing  has  to  be  disinfected, 
— de-loused — to  put  it  plainly,  this  is  no  mean 
task. 

128 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

This  keeping  an  army  clean  is  a  problem  in 
itself  and  many  solutions  have  been  tried,  none 
of  which  combines  all  good  features  and  no  bad. 
The  large  establishment  cannot  of  necessity  be 
placed  very  close  to  the  lines  for  fear  of  demoli- 
tion by  hostile  gun-fire.  Smaller  units  of  the 
kind  are  a  proportionately  greater  expense 
than  where  there  is  chance  for  systematic  divi- 
sion of  labor,  as  there  is  in  the  larger  type. 
Hand  work  is  slow  and  uncertain  and  of  course 
transport  to  laundries  situated  in  the  back 
areas  involves  the  same  old  question  of  trans- 
portation. One  thing  has  come  to  be  estab- 
lished in  regard  to  this  work  and  that  is  that 
there  shall  be  a  community  of  underclothes  and 
in  a  measure  of  outer  garments  too.  They  do 
not  undertake  to  deliver  to  the  individual  the 
things  he  takes  off.  These  are  started  on  a 
journey  through  the  machinery  which  shall 
eventually  leave  them  clean  and  mended  if  need 
be,  and  the  man  who  has  cast  them  from  him 
finds  when  he  has  emerged  from  his  bath,  others 
of  the  same  type  which  he  substitutes  for  his 

129 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

own.  Whether  that  will  work  out  with  our 
men  who  are  given  to  individual  fancies  in  re- 
gard to  what  they  wear  under  their  uniforms 
remains  to  be  determined.  The  system  is  prac- 
tical in  that  it  makes  for  little  delay  in  provid- 
ing the  man  with  fresh  clean  linen,  and  as  these 
men  are  accustomed  to  a  uniform  type  it  does 
not  make  much  difference  to  the  individual  un- 
less some  luckless  runt  may  happen  to  draw  the 
apparel  of  some  one  twice  his  size  and  girth. 
In  that  event  however  there  is  chance  of  appeal 
for  a  reduction  or  extension,  as  the  case  may 
be. 

I  spent  the  night  of  my  cpoing  and  of  my 
returning  at  Dunkerque,  in  the  Hotel  des 
Arcades  which  is  on  the  Place  Jean  Bart.  The 
hotel  was  at  that  time  a  mute  evidence  of  the 
pernicious  activities  of  the  Hun  and  most  of 
the  windows  and  mirrors  had  given  up  their 
shining  lives  to  the  fierce  bursts  of  shells  or 
bombs.  Fritz  bombed  us  both  nights  I  spent 
in  the  queer  little  town  but  did  little  damage 
on  either  occasion  as  the  French  planes  and  the 

130 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

anti-aircraft  guns  drove  him  away  before  he 
could  accomplish  much.  Most  of  my  visits  to 
outlying  towns  near  the  front  were  synchronized 
with  Hun  air  activity  and  eventually  I  felt 
rather  slighted  if  I  were  not  awakened  some 
time  during  the  night  or  the  gray  hours  of  the 
morning  by  the  combined  racket  of  bombs  and 
gunfire.  I  had  the  doubtful  pleasure  of  being 
bombed  three  times  in  one  night  in  one  town  and 
distinctly  resented  what  seemed  like  an  entirely 
gratuitous  interference  with  my  night's  sleep, 
for  it  is  next  to  impossible  either  to  go  to  sleep 
or  stay  asleep  with  the  racket  of  an  air  raid  in 
progress.  There  was  one  air  raid  which  did 
not  result  entirely  in  damage  to  the  French. 
In  a  certain  town,  not  far  removed  from  the 
front  lines  and  within  easy  bombing  distance, 
there  had  been  several  attacks  directed  at  the 
Post  Office  which,  under  the  French  system  of 
Governmental  control,  comprised  the  telegraph 
as  well  as  the  service  of  the  mails.  They  got 
it,  I  think,  on  the  third  night's  try :  got  it  good 
and  plenty.     I  was  in  the  town  the  next  mom- 

131 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

ing  and  the  remains  of  that  Post  Office  were 
scattered  all  over  the  street  and  the  entire 
building  was  a  disreputable  pile  of  crumpled 
masonry  and  twisted  iron.  The  French  Officer 
with  whom  I  looked  over  the  ruin  admitted  that 
Fritz  had  mussed  up  their  Postal  service  for  a 
day  or  so,  but  told  me  with  a  cheerful  grin  that 
they  had  had  the  foresight  to  install  the  said 
Post  Office  in  a  building  owned  by  G.  H.  Mumm 
who  was  then  looking  through  the  wires  from 
the  inside  of  an  internment  camp  for  enemy 
aliens  and  that  any  material  loss  for  property 
destroyed  would  be  a  matter  of  regret  to  him 
and  not  to  any  good  son  of  France.  I  confess 
that  I  did  not  feel  the  amount  of  sympathy  for 
Mr.  Mumm  that  I  might  have  if  he  had  not 
always  insisted  on  so  high  a  tariff  for  his 
product. 

There  are  a  number  of  hospitals  of  the  type 
of  these  two  located  in  the  Zone  of  the  Armies. 
Many  of  them  are  within  range  of  bombard- 
ment, but  none  of  them  are  located  so  that 
they  will  be  exposed  to  constant  shell  fire.     It 

132 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

is  necessary  to  have  them  as  close  as  is  consist- 
ent with  reasonable  safety,  for  I  have  stated 
that  it  has  been  proved  that  a  man's  chances 
in  the  present  war  are  much  better  if  he  has 
opportunity  for  prompt  operation  than  if  he 
has  to  be  transported  for  a  considerable  dis- 
tance with  the  attendant  delay.  The  French 
have  established,  also,  special  hospitals  for  the 
treatment  of  particular  injuries  and  presided 
over  by  men  who  are  specially  skillful  in  ihe 
treatment  of  these  conditions.  In  addition  to 
receiving  and  caring  for  the  cases  themselves, 
these  institutions  serve  as  schools  for  selected 
Medical  Officers  who  go  to  them  for  instruction 
and  then  return  to  their  Corps  or  Division  to 
act  as  supplementary  teachers  to  the  personnel 
therein.  I  saw  a  unit  of  this  kind  given  over 
to  the  care  and  treatment  of  fracture  cases  and, 
in  addition  to  the  actual  surgical  work  it  was 
turning  out,  men  who  by  reason  of  the  instruc- 
tion received  there  were  specially  qualified  to 
carry  on  the  work  in  other  localities. 

Still  nearer  to  the  front  are  units  of  another 
133 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

kind :  the  Ambulances  of  the  First  Line,  and  the 
Evacuation  Hospitals.  In  the  first  of  these 
one  sees  a  different  class  of  cases  than  those 
encountered  at  a  greater  distance  from  the 
fighting.  Here  the  blood  is  fresh,  and  it  is  in 
these  that  the  desperate  cases  have  their  chance 
to  win  back  to  some  sort  of  life,  or  finish  for- 
ever the  uncertain  career  of  the  fighting  men. 
In  1916,  while  the  Crown  Prince  was  still 
butting  his  stupid  head  against  the  iron  wall 
at  Verdun,  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  inspect 
some  of  the  Sanitary  formations  in  this  hard 
fought  sector.  At  that  time,  as  every  one  knows 
now,  the  replenishment  of  the  forces  about  Ver- 
dun with  men  and  supplies  was  carried  on  by 
means  of  motor  transport  over  the  road  from 
Bar-le-Duc — the  "sacred  road" — as  it  was 
termed.  My  pass  took  me  to  Bar-le-Duc  and 
there  I  had  to  have  my  papers  countersigned 
and  send  the  motor  for  a  supply  of  gasoline. 
While  waiting  for  its  return  I  stood  on  the 
corner  in  front  of  Headquarters  and  watched 
the  transportation  lumber  by.    I  was  impressed 

134 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

by  the  apparently  never  ending  stream  of 
trucks  which  thundered  along  in  double  line, 
one  coming  from  the  front  and  the  other  going 
out.  As  a  matter  of  satisfying  my  curiosity  I 
held  my  watch  and  timed  the  passing.  As  I 
stood  there  counting,  my  French  officer  guide 
came  up  and  after  waiting  a  moment  said  to 
me,  "And  how  many  do  you  make  them?" 
"One  every  fifteen  seconds  each .  way,"  I  an- 
swered. He  told  me  that  if  that  was  the  case 
they  were  running  on  schedule  and  that  if  I 
had  stood  at  that  corner  for  the  previous  three 
months,  watch  in  hand,  I  should  have  found  the 
same  rate  of  travel,  night  and  day.  It  is  about 
forty  miles  from  Bar  to  Verdun  and  one  can 
see  what  that  means  with  a  double  line  of 
trucks  running  at  15  seconds'  headway  night 
and  day.  It  seemed  as  though  all  the  transpor- 
tation in  the  world  was  rumbling  up  and  down 
that  road.  While  waiting  for  the  return  of  our 
machine  I  witnessed  an  incident  which  im- 
pressed me  and  gave  me  a  clear  idea  of  the 
cheerful  loyalty  of  France  to  her  soldiers. 

135 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

Many  of  the  returning  trucks  carried  loads 
of  "poilus"  coming  back  from  the  front  for 
their  period  of  rest  and  recuperation.  They 
were  stained  and  worn,  covered  from  head  to 
foot  with  the  white,  flour-like  dust  which  covers 
everything  where  the  wheels  of  the  camions 
grind  the  road  to  powder  with  their  ceaseless 
turning ;  but  withal  they  were  a  cheerful,  merry 
set  and  apparently  not  too  tired  for  jest  and 
laughter.  The  line  halted  for  a  minute  and  a 
woman  leading  a  little,  girl  by  the  hand  passed 
in  the  rear  of  one  of  the  soldier  laden  trucks. 
They  all  hailed  her  in  voluble  French  and  she 
and  they  tossed  the  ball  of  badinage  back  and 
forth  for  a  few  brief  minutes  and  then  as  the 
procession  started  again,  evidently  in  answer 
to  an  appeal  and  to  outstretched  hands,  the 
woman  reached  in  her  basket  and  tossed  up  to 
the  dusty  soldiers  one  of  the  big  French  loaves 
which  are  such  a  staple  of  peasant  sustenance. 
They  cheered  her  as  they  rolled  away  in  their 
aura  of  golden  dust  and  she  and  the  little  girl, 
both  clad  in  black,  went  their  way  smilingly 

136 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

and  evidently  with  no  regret  that  a  goodly  por- 
tion of  their  supper  had  gone  to  the  defenders 
of  their  homes. 

The  ride  from  Bar-le-Duc  on  towards 
Verdun  was  more  or  less  of  an  educa- 
tion. This  constantly  traveled  highway  was 
broad  and  well  kept — for  heavy  transport  at 
least — but  the  smooth  surface  had  been  ground 
off  by  countless  solid  tires.  We  passed  a  num- 
ber of  busy  steam  rollers  and  all  along  the  en- 
tire route,  within  speaking  distance  of  each 
other,  were  men,  the  older  men,  patching  and 
repairing  this  artery  of  travel.  They  stood 
with  their  shovels  and  rakes  and  at  the  least  sign 
of  disintegration  in  the  portion  which  they 
guarded  they  threw  in  a  shovelful  of  crushed 
rock,  hastily  leveled  it  with  their  rakes  and 
the  steadily  tramping  trucks  beat  it  down  for 
the  final  repair.  At  every  turn,  or  crossing,  and 
at  the  entrance  and  exit  of  each  village,  soldiers 
with  long  clubs  were  stationed,  the  military 
police  of  this  busy  road.  Of  course  there  were 
signs ;  signs  with  French  thoroughness   which 

137 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

told  you  exactly  what  you  could  or  could  not 
do.  On  each  side  of  the  road,  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  see,  were  stacks  of  supplies:  supplies  of 
every  description  and  every  conceivable  sort. 
And  all  the  ground  out  here  was  raw,  and 
trampled  by  foot  and  hoof — and  a  welter  of 
mud.  From  one  hill  I  counted  ten  captive  bal- 
loons, "sausages"  hanging  against  the  gray  sky. 

We  went  first  to  D ,  a  village  where  one 

of  the  First  Ambulances  was  located.  Near 
it  were  parked  the  automobiles  of  one  of  the 
sections  of  the  American  Ambulance  which  was 
busy  evacuating  the  wounded  from  this  always 
busy  sector.  The  hospital  itself  was  located 
partly  in  the  Parish  house  of  the  church  and 
partly  in  tents  in  the  yard.  Cases  were  brought 
to  it  direct  from  the  trenches,  less  than  two 
hours  away.  The  surgeon  who  was  in  com- 
mand was  a  man  well  known  in  Paris  and  he 
looked  tired  and  strained  as  he  showed  us  over 
his  establishment.  He  said  that  he  had  been  at 
work  here  for  some  months  and  that  the  duties 
were  exacting,  which  I  could  well  believe.     He 

138 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

was  there  with  one  other  surgeon  as  his  assist- 
ant and  between  them  they  managed  about  forty- 
operations  each  day.  With  me  was  a  member 
of  the  American  Relief  Clearing  House  which 
did  such  good  work  for  the  French  and  he  asked 
if  there  was  anything  that  could  be  furnished 
which  would  make  work  easier  and  add  to  their 
resources.  Indeed  there  was.  Although  they 
were  as  well  supplied  as  possible,  there  were  a 
number  of  things  which  would  add  much  to  the 
efficiency  and  he  named  some  of  them — a  larger 
sterilizer  for  dressings,  certain  instruments,  and 
as  he  found  that  his  needs  did  not  appal  my 
friend  he  added  to  his  list,  growing  more  cheer- 
ful each  minute  at  the  thought  of  this  unex- 
pected help.  I  may  as  well  state  here  that  all 
the  things  he  craved  so  wistfully  for  the  better- 
ment of  his  wounded  were  shipped  to  him  with 
commendable  promptness  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that  he  profited  by  them.  With  a  more  cheer- 
ful mien  he  showed  us  through  his  little  hos- 
pital. There  were  wounded  everywhere :  on  the 
operating  tables  for  operation  or  dressings ;  on 

139 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

litters  on  the  floor  waiting  their  turn  and  in 
cots  in  the  tent  wards.  . 

Some  of  the  wards  were  comparatively  cheer- 
ful; filled  with  those  who  would  soon  be  well 
enough  to  go  and  take  their  places  in  that 
inferno  so  short  a  distance  away.  Two  were  not 
so  cheerful.  One  of  them  housed  the  gangrene 
cases  of  which  the  less  said  the  better.  I  knew 
what  it  was  before  I  went  in  and  the  peculiar, 
distinctive  odor  is  one  that  cannot  be  mistaken, 
nor  readily  forgotten.  The  other  was  given 
over  to  the  hopeless  ones  who  had  no  chance  to 
live;  only  the  hard  luck  to  fight  out  there  the 
brief  interval  of  tortured  hfe  left  to  them. 
There  were  two  sheeted  figures  in  a  corner  who 
had  not  yet  been  carried  away  and  in  the  little 
time  I  was  in  the  ward  another  died.  As  we 
came  out  the  doctor  stopped  by  a  bed  where  a 
man  half  sat,  half  lay  against  the  breast  of  a 
tired  orderly.  His  whole  head  was  swathed  in 
red  stained  bandages  and  he  beat  stiffl}^  on  the 
covers  with  his  hands  and  called  something  in 
a   muffled   monotone   which   they   told   me  was 

140 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

meant  for  "water."  Both  his  eyes  and  the  most 
of  his  face  had  been  shot  away  that  morning 
and  he  could  not  swallow.  The  doctor  ordered 
morphine  for  him  and  I  was  glad  to  come  away. 
They  told  me  that  the  shell  wounds  were  very 
bad  and  showed  a  tendency  to  develop  rapid  and 
fatal  gas  gangrene,  due  presumably  to  the 
ever  present  mud  which  infects  all  wounds.  The 
hospitals  of  this  class  count  among  the  cases 
they  treat  many  that  one  does  not  see  in  those 
farther  back,  since  it  is  to  these  that  the  non- 
transportable  are  brought  for  such  operative 
work  as  may  be  advisable  or  necessary.  The 
consequence  is  that  they  are  much  more  harrow- 
ing than  those  which  treat  men  who  have  re- 
covered from  the  first  shock  of  their  wounds  and 
presumably  have  a  fair  chance  of  being  restored 
in  some  semblance  of  their  original  selves.  The 
roar  of  the  guns  was  constant  here  and  some 
shells  dropped  near,  but  none  in  our  immediate 
vicinity.  They  told  me  that  a  number  had  fallen 
in  the  grounds  occupied  by  the  hospital,  but 
that  so  far  there  had  been  no  casualties.     The 

141 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

ambulance  was  situated  some  four  or  five  kilo- 
meters from  Verdun  and  therefore  in  easy  gun 
range  of  the  German  fire.  It  was,  all  in  all,  a 
sad  and  rather  depressing  place  and  aside  from 
the  professional  interest  there  was  nothing  save 
an  unjustifiable  and  morbid  curiosity  which  was 
a  valid  reason  for  a  visit  to  it. 

This  type  of  ambulance  is  normally  a  mobile 
unit  and  travels  with  the  division  to  which  it  is 
attached.  In  order  to  make  provision  for  the 
cases  which  cannot  be  moved,  the  non-transport- 
able wounded,  it  is  possible  to  immobilize  such 
of  them  as  may  be  necessary  and  by  the  addi- 
tion of  a  further  section  one  can  be  turned  from 
a  unit  designed  merely  for  the  temporary  care 
of  the  wounded  to  a  First  Line  Field  Hospital 
of  the  type  of  the  one  I  have  described.  When 
the  necessity  has  passed  the  additional  section 
is  detached  and  the  normal  unit  takes  on  again 
its  mobile  function. 

Near   the  Ambulance   at  D there   was 

another  first  line  unit  which  has  come  into 
existence  since  the  commencement  of  the  present 

142 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

war.  It  is  known  as  the  Automobile  Surgical 
Ambulance,  and  was  designed  with  the  object 
of  meeting  the  condition  which  I  have  several 
times  referred  to,  namely  the  prompt  and  thor- 
ough operative  care  of  the  wounded.  The  Am- 
bulances of  this  type  are  presided  over  by  a 
Surgeon  of  proved  and  special  surgical  skill 
and  the  personnel  is  more  generous  than  that 
provided  for  the  ordinary  first  line  Ambulance. 
They  are  designed  for  the  care  of  serious  cases 
and  none  others  are  supposed  to  be  sent  to 
them.  They  are  self  contained  units  and  all 
their  material  is  packed  on  trucks  so  that  they 
are  available  for  any  section  of  the  line  where 
the  fighting  is  heavy  and  their  need  imperative. 
They  are  ingenious  in  their  compactness  and 
have  proved  useful  in  the  solution  of  a  difficult 
problem.  One  of  the  trucks  is  fitted  with  ap- 
paratus for  the  sterilization  of  instruments  and 
dressings  and  another  runs  an  X-ray  outfit, 
either  in  the  truck  itself,  or  by  the  extension  of 
the  wires,  in  a  tent,  or  a  building  if  there  be  one 
which  can  be  utilized.    In  addition  to  the  X-ray 

143 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

current,  sufficient  power  is  generated  to  light 
the  operating  room,  so  that  work  may  go  on 
uninterruptedly  night  or  day  with  good  illumi- 
nation. What  an  advantage  this  is,  any  of  my 
professional  brothers  who  have  stumbled 
through  intricate  operative  work  to  the  flicker- 
ing illumination  of  lamp  or  candle,  can  testify. 
In  addition  to  the  paraphernalia  necessary  for 
operations,  there  are  several  knock  down  bar- 
racks which  can  be  set  up  in  little  time  and 
used  to  house  the  wounded.  In  addition  there 
are  tents  which  can  be  used  to  extend  the  capac- 
ity and  with  these  resources  the  unit  can  care 
for  a  very  appreciable  number  of  wounded  and 
give  them  the  benefit  of  prompt  and  thorough 
surgical  intervention.  When  possible,  the 
French  set  these  units  up  where  there  is  a  house 
of  some  sort  and  thus  get  the  benefit  of  better 
construction  and  housing  than  if  they  depend- 
ed on  the  portable  shelter,  but  they  are  de- 
signed to  be  self  supporting  and  to  function 
irrespective  of  any  permanent  habitation. 
There  was  no  available  shelter  for  the  one  I 

144> 


Operating  Room  on  a  "Sanitary  Train." 


Interior  of  a  French  Dental  Ambulance.  This  is  a 
Rolling  Dental  Office,  Completely  Fitted  and 
Mounted  on  an  Automobile  Truck. 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

saw  near  D and  it  was  working  in  the  bar- 

racks  and  tents. 

The  operating  room  was  painted  white 
on  the  inside,  well  lighted  and  there  were 
four     or     five     tables     presided     over     bj     a 

proper  quota  of  personnel.   Here,  as  at  D , 

there  was  an  abundance  of  wounded.  All  the 
tables  were  occupied  and  there  was  a  row  of 
bandaged  figures  on  litters  on  the  floor  waiting 
their  turn  and  the  verdict  of  the  surgeon.  The 
wounds  were  all  bad,  for  as  I  have  said,  it  is 
the  serious  cases  which  come  to  these  well 
equipped,  compact  little  hospitals.  The  oper- 
ative work  was  skillful  and  rapidly  done  and 
so  far  as  I  could  judge  by  the  statistics  given 
me,  the  results  were  very  creditable.  I  saw 
several  operations  done,  major  operations,  and 
it  struck  me  that  this  sort  of  unit  had  a  very 
real  place  in  the  scheme  of  modem  care  of  the 
wounded.  The  wounded  were  the  same  patient 
lot  that  I  found  them  everywhere  I  saw  them. 
They  got  on  the  table  with  no  reluctance  ap- 
parently and  those  who  waited  their  turn  oa 

147 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

the  litters  made  no  complaint  and  did  not  seem 
shocked  at  the  atmosphere  in  which  they  waited. 
I  suppose  that  after  living  a  life  where  each  day 
brings  death  in  one  dreadful  form  or  another 
before  one's  eyes,  the  air  of  an  operating  room 
even  with  the  distinctive  attendant  smell  of 
fresh  blood  and  all  that  goes  to  make  up  that 
complex  whole,  must  seem  in  a  measure  restful. 
It  is  certainly  the  antithesis  of  the  front  line. 
There  it  is  dirt  and  destruction  and  the  only 
chance  is  from  bad  to  worse ;  here,  it  is  cleanli- 
ness, reconstruction  and  the  cunning  work  of 
busy  fingers  to  put  into  place  again  all  that  has 
been  torn  asunder  by  the  many  engines  of  war. 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  this  Ambulance  was 
devoted  to  the  care  of  more  serious  cases  than 

the  one  at  D ,  the  entire  atmosphere  was 

less  depressing  and  I  left  it  with  less  heaviness 
of  heart  than  the  one  in  the  Parish  house  pre- 
sided over  by  the  tired  surgeon  who  craved 
additional  comforts  for  his  wounded.  There 
were  several  Ambulances  grouped  at  this  point ; 
the  Automobile  Ambulance  and  others  of  the 

148 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

type  of  the  one  at  D ,  making  quite  a  little 

center,  or  colony  of  the  wounded.  They  were 
all  marked  by  the  flag  of  the  Geneva  Conven- 
tion, both  as  flags  proper,  and  by  the  Red 
Cross  painted  on  the  roofs  of  the  buildings. 
They  had  been  established  there  for  some 
months  and  there  was  no  possible  doubt  as  to 
what  they  were, — and  yet  that  did  not  prevent 
the  ingenious  Hun  from  very  thoroughly  bomb- 
ing them  with  characteristic  German  persist- 
ence not  a  great  while  after  my  visit  there.  The 
results  were  about  what  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, and  probably  what  the  Boche  did  ex- 
pect. There  were  a  number  of  the  wounded  and 
of  the  nurses  killed  and  wounded  again — and 
that  was  the  extent  of  the  Military  advantage. 
I  am  not  sorry  to  say  that  there  were  included 
among  the  casualties  a  number  of  German  pris- 
oners who  had  been  brought  there  to  have  their 
hurts  tended  and  healed  by  the  French.  Under 
certain  circumstances  the  bombing  or  bom- 
bardment of  Sanitary  units  may  be  an  unavoid- 
able incident  of  war.     That  is  to  say  if  thej 

149 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

are  so  located  that  they  may  be  readily  con- 
fused with  buildings  given  over  to  the  use  of 
the  combatant  forces.  Incidents  of  that  kind 
while  of  course  deplorable  are  not  subject  for 
condemnation,  but  must  be  taken  as  a  part  of 
a  business  which  at  the  best  shows  little  mercy. 
So  many  hospitals  and  sanitary  units  have 
been  attacked  by  the  Germans,  both  at  that  time 
and  subsequently,  that  one  is  driven  to  the  in- 
evitable conclusion  that  it  was  a  part  of  a  well 
conceived  plan  of  frightfulness  and  in  no  way 
attributable  to  the  errors  of  judgment  of  those 
who  executed  the  work.  It  is  this  sort  of  thing 
which  has  made  Germany  an  Ishmael  of  the 
Nations.  This  ruthless  singleness  of  purpose ; 
this  intent  to  destroy  anything  which  lives  and 
is  not  German.  I  went  abroad,  not  neutral,  but 
with  a  fairly  open  mind  in  regard  to  the  pos- 
sible exaggeration  of  some  of  the  reports  of 
German  conduct.  I  found  others  over  there  who 
had  been  of  the  same  opinion  at  first.  I  found 
none  who  had  not  changed  to  bitter  condemna- 
tion and  it  was  only  a  short  time  before  I  was 

150 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

forced  to  the  same  conclusion.  Personally,  I 
saw  no  atrocities ;  I  was  not  in  a  position  to  see 
them.  I  had  however  many  friends  among  the 
French,  people  of  incontestable  veracity  and  of 
fairness  of  mind,  and  what  they  told  me  was 
sufficient,  aside  from  published  accounts  of  such 
acts  as  the  bombing  of  Hospitals,  to  leave  me 
with  the  same  shuddering  opinion  of  the  Ger- 
man character  as  is  held  now  by  almost  every 
one  who  knows  their  works. 

An  important  unit  of  the  Zone  of  the  Armies 
is  the  Evacuation  Hospital.  These  are  usually 
situated  at  Railhead  and  serve  a  double  func- 
tion ;  one  as  a  clearing  house,  and  the  other  as 
a  Hospital  for  the  care  of  cases  whiv^h  come  to 
it  and  are  not  fitted  to  be  sent  further.  They 
are  an  outgrowth  of  the  war  and  occupy  a 
prominent  place  in  the  care  of  the  sick  and 
wounded.  Unless  specially  constructed,  they 
are  located  in  buildings  adapted  for  the  purpose 
and  oftentimes  much  ingenuity  is  shown  in 
making  use  of  the  resources  which  were  original- 
ly intended  for  a  very  different  purpose.   Those 

161 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

which  are  at  Railhead  or  attached  to  Railroad 
stations  are  naturally,  and  fairly  so,  subject 
to  bombardment.  An  evacuation  hospital  is 
provided  for  each  Army  Corps.  Its  bed  capac- 
ity and  personnel  is  not  fixed  as  its  capacity  is 
planned  for  on  the  basis  of  the  probable  or 
possible  demands  that  will  be  made  on  it.  It  is 
an  organization  belonging  to  the  Zone  of  the 
Advance,  although  until  very  recently  it  was 
accredited  to  the  Zone  of  the  Line  of  Com- 
munication. The  central  idea  about  which  the 
French  Medical  Service  has  been  built  is  the 
necessity  for  keeping  every  sick  and  wounded 
man  who  can  be  returned  to  duty  in  a  reason- 
able time  in  the  Zone  of  the  Armies.  This  I 
have  previously  referred  to.  The  most  im- 
portant single  element  in  carrying  out  this  idea 
is  the  Evacuation  Hospital.  In  talking  with 
French  Medical  officers  the  word  "triage" 
(sorting)  is  constantly  heard  and  one  comes  to 
realize  how  important  a  part  this  classification 
of  wounded  plays  in  the  French  scheme.  While 
this  sorting  process  is  begun  in  the  most  ad- 

152 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

vanced  Sanitary  formations,  it  is  at  the  Evacu- 
ation Hospital  that  its  full  importance  is  seen. 
That  it  is  considered  the  vital  factor  in  main- 
taining the  strength  of  the  combatant  organiza- 
tions there  can  be  no  doubt. 

As  I  have  said  above,  the  personnel  and  equip- 
ment of  these  units  is  not  specified.  Formerly, 
they  were,  as  the  name  implies,  collecting  points 
at  Railhead  for  the  evacuation  of  wounded  and 
sick.  Experience  in  war  has  caused  radical 
changes  in  the  organization  of  the  unit.  It 
now  consists  of  two  sections,  one  for  evacuation 
and  the  other  for  hospitalization  of  patients. 
The  two  sections  are  under  one  officer  who  ad- 
ministers both.  The  personnel  of  the  second 
section  depends  on  the  size  of  the  hospital  and 
the  activity  of  the  sector  in  which  it  is  located. 
In  periods  of  calm,  twenty  Medical  Officers,  two 
hundred  enlisted  men  and  about  twenty  women- 
nurses  will  suffice.  When  the  front  becomes 
active,  forty  or  fifty  Officers,  three  to  four  hun- 
dred enlisted  men  and  a  proportionate  increase 
of  women  nurses  will  be  required. 

153 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

Briefly,  the  function  of  the  Evacuation  Hos- 
pital is: 

1.  To  avoid  the  exodus  toward  the  interior 
of  the  large  number  of  slightly  wounded  who 
can  be  returned  to  duty  in  a  short  time. 

2.  To  insure  the  rapid  and  comfortable 
evacuation  to  the  interior  of  wounded  and  sick 
who  will  require  long  treatment  and  who  would 
uselessly  encumber  the  Zone  of  the  Armies. 

3.  To  assure  proper  hospital  care  in  the 
Zone  of  the  Armies  of  wounded  and  sick  who 
are  non-transportable,  or  transportable  for 
only  a  short  distance. 

The  location  of  an  Evacuation  Hospital  must 
be  on  a  railroad.  It  must  be  as  close  to  the 
front  as  possible  and  connected  by  good  roads 
with  the  Field  Hospitals.  It  must  comprise 
suitable  covered  entrance  for  the  unloading  of 
patients  from  the  ambulances;  receiving  rooms 
where  classification  of  patients  is  made ;  shelter 
in  separate  places  for  seated  wounded,  recum- 
bent wounded  and  the  sick  who  are  waiting 
evacuation ;  hospital  wards,  operating  rooms  for 

164 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

the  non-transportable  cases  and  a  small  isola- 
tion section  for  contagious  diseases  waiting 
transportation  to  a  contagious  disease  hospital. 

Formerly,  existing  buildings  were  adapted 
for  the  purpose  as  I  stated  previously,  but  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  at  the  present  time  these  hos- 
pitals are  now  all  constructed  for  the  purpose 
they  are  to  serve.  It  is  absolutely  essential  that 
a  railroad  shall  be  In  the  immediate  vicinity,  or 
that  a  spur  shall  be  run  in,  and  that  there  be  a 
loading  quai  on  the  level  of  the  floor  of  the 
train.  As  to  the  capacity  of  the  Hospital  sec- 
tion of  this  unit,  no  definite  rule  can  be  laid 
down.  It  is  inevitable  that  in  periods  of  calm 
the  hospital  will  not  be  working  to  capacity,  and 
it  is  equally  inevitable  that  in  time  of  great 
activity  its  capacity  and  personnel  will  be  over- 
taxed. On  the  average,  they  are  designed  to 
accommodate,  in  the  Evacuation  Section,  1,000 
sitting  cases  and  400  recumbent  waiting  trans- 
fer by  hospital  train;  the  Hospital  section, 
from  400  to  600  patients. 

The  work  of  these  hospitals  differs  materially 

155 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

in  time  of  calm  and  in  time  of  great  activity. 
In  the  first  instance  they  care  for  all  the  serious 
cases  arising  on  the  front  to  which  they  belong. 
Many  of  them  have  well  organized  and  equipped 
departments  for  the  care  of  the  special  cases, 
such  as  plastic  surgery  of  the  face,  eye,  ear, 
nose  and  throat  and  similar  special  conditions. 
In  periods  of  great  activity  their  work  is  prac- 
tically confined  to  the  care  of  the  non-transport- 
able wounded,  and  the  forwarding,  through  the 
evacuation  section,  of  those  who  are  to  go  far- 
ther back. 

From  the  above  it  can  readily  be  seen  what 
an  important  role  in  the  Sanitary  service  these 
hospitals  play,  and  their  adaptability  to  con- 
ditions of  relative  inaction  and  of  great  stress. 

I  visited  a  number  of  these  interesting  units 
located  in  different  parts  of  France,  from  near 
the  North  Sea  to  the  vicinity  of  the  Swiss  fron- 
tier. One  that  I  saw  in  Northern  France  was 
located  in  a  railroad  station  and  installed  in 
the  buildings  which  were  already  there.  They 
had  made  use  of  the  freight  shed  since  it  was  a 

156 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

large  building  and  had  the  added  advantage  of 
having  a  quai,  or  platform,  which  was  on  a  level 
with  the  car  floors  and  thus  made  the  loading  of 
the  trains  a  relatively  easy  matter.  This  big 
shed  had  been  divided  by  temporary  partitions 
into  different  rooms  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
unit.  There  was  no  formal  hospital  in  connec- 
tion with  it,  the  cases  needing  urgent  care  be- 
ing transferred  a  short  distance  to  one  of  the 
hospitals  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  This  was 
a  wise  precaution,  for  the  station  was  very  fre- 
quently bombed  by  airplanes  and  the  risk  of 
attending  casualties  among  the  helpless  wound- 
ed counterbalanced  any  advantage  which  might 
have  been  gained  by  installing  the  hospital  sec- 
tion. It  served  as  a  station  for  "triage"  and 
the  only  wards  were  those  in  which  the  recum- 
bent wounded  waited  the  departure  of  the  daily 
train  which  was  to  transfer  them  farther  to  the 
rear.  There  were  holes  in  the  roof  and  no  glass 
in  the  windows  and  the  Surgeon  in  charge 
showed  me  one  bed  which  had  been  riddled,  both 
mattress  and  pillows,  by  fragments  of  a  bomb 

157 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

\rliich  had  fallen  on  the  unit  a  night  or  tiro  pre- 
Tiously.  As  one  of  the  older  type,  this  had  no 
special  construction  and  much  ingenuity  had 
been  exercised  in  adapting  the  buildings  of  the 
station  for  their  present  use. 

At  R ,  northeast  of  Verdun,  I  saw  one 

of  the  later  construction.  This  was  at  some 
little  distance  from  the  railroad  station,  but 
joined  up  to  it  by  spur  tracks  which  allowed 
the  running  in  of  trains  for  loading.  The 
Surgeon  in  charge  told  me  that  they  were  not 
particularly  busy  at  the  time  I  visited  it,  but 
remarked  in  a  nonchalant  way  that  they  did  not 
consider  that  they  had  done  a  fair  day's  work 
unless  they  had  forwarded  through  the  evacua- 
tion section  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  thousand 
sick  and  wounded.  The  hospital  section  here 
was  of  about  eight  hundred  bed  capacity  and 
the  turn  over  from  it  depended  on  the  condi- 
tion of  the  cases  in  it  and  also  on  the  pressure 
of  work.  Pressure  of  work  is  a  factor  in  regard 
to  these  hospitals  for  the  reason  that  when  there 
is  a  drive  imminent,  or  in  progress,  every  case 

158 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

that  can  be  safely  moved,  is  moved  in  order 
that  there  may  be  bed  space  for  the  tide  of 
wounded  which  will  flow  in  as  the  result  of  active 
hostilities.  The  movement  of  the  wounded 
through  an  institution  of  this  sort  involves  a 
deal  of  detail.  As  they  arrive  they  must  be 
unloaded  from  train  or  ambulance,  they  must 
be  sorted  in  accordance  with  their  necessities, 
check  records  must  be  made  and  certain  data 
entered  on  the  personal  records  which  each  man 
carries  with  him.  They  must  be  fed,  each  one 
must  be  carefully  examined  to  determine  the 
condition  of  his  dressings  and  in  many  cases 
these  must  be  renewed  before  he  is  shipped  fur- 
ther down  the  line.  Arrangements  have  to  be 
made  for  the  makeup  of  the  train  that  is  to 
carry  them  on  and  word  sent  to  the  different 
receiving  points  in  order  that  when  they  arrive 
they  shall  find  adequate  preparation  for  their 
reception.  I  was  struck  by  the  methodical  way 
in  which  all  this  ran:  there  seemed  to  be  no 
hitch,  no  lost  motion,  and  yet  no  one  seemed 
to  be  in  a  hurry  or  even  to  have  the  appearance 

159 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

of  being  very  busy.  I  apologized  to  my  friend 
the  Chief  Surgeon  for  taking  his  time  to  pilot 
me  about.  He  protested  mildly,  that  he  was  not 
very  busy,  that  I  in  nowise  interfered  with  the 
routine  and  concluded  by  saying  that  things 
were  so  regulated  that  he  was  quite  sure  that 
all  would  go  on  perfectly  well  if  he  went  to  bed 
and  remained  there  until  the  next  morning. 
There  were  a  number  of  German  prisoners  there 
waiting  to  be  sent  on  into  the  interior.  The 
majority  of  those  I  saw  at  this  hospital  at  this 
time  were  undersized  boys,  not  very  well  nour- 
ished and  apparently  very  glad  to  be  in  a  safe 
place  and  through  with  war's  alarms.  They 
were  by  no  means  representative  of  Germany's 
man  power  however,  for  many  months  later  I 
saw  many  others  who  were  as  husky,  able  bodied 
brutes  as  one  would  wish  to  encounter — or  not 
to  encounter  save  under  similar  circumstances, 
for  the  only  Germans  that  ever  looked  good  to 
me  were  either  prisoners  or  dead. 

As  I  was  walking  down  a  path  between  two  of 
the  wards  the  Surgeon  stopped  a  minute  to  talk 

160 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

to  an  orderly  and  I  went  on  alone,  passing  a 
group  of  French  Sanitary  Soldiers.  They  salut- 
ed as  I  passed,  looking  with  curiosity  at  my  uni- 
form and  after  I  had  gotten  by,  I  heard  in  un- 
mistakable United  States,  "Well,  I'll  be  damned ! 
What  in  hell  do  you  know  about  that !  I  haven't 
seen  one  in  over  two  years  and  he  certainly  looks 
good  to  me."  I  wheeled  and  went  back  to  the 
group  and  asked,  in  English,  if  the  man  who 
had  been  talking  would  mind  coming  and  hav- 
ing a  few  words  with  me.  Out  stepped  a  short, 
gray  haired  man  of  about  fifty,  the  least  Amer- 
ican looking  one  of  the  lot  and  with  a  good 
French  salute  and  an  embarrassed  air  said,  "It 
was  me.  Major,  but  I  meant  no  disrespect,  and 
I  was  that  astonished  that  maybe  I  spoke  louder 
than  I  intended.  You  see  I  haven't  seen  an 
Aijierican  Officer  now  since  the  war  started  and 
I  just  couldn't  help  it."  I  assured  him  that  I 
had  come  back  solely  to  have  a  few  minutes' 
chat  with  him  and  not  to  take  exception  to  his 
diction,  and  to  prove  it,  wound  up  with,  "And 
where  in  hell  did  you  come  from.'^"    He  explained 

161 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

that  he  had  spent  almost  all  his  life  in  New 
York  although  he  had  been  bom  in  France; 
that  he  was  a  naturalized  American  but  that  he 
could  not  stand  the  strain  when  war  was  de- 
clared, so  he  had  come  over  and  enlisted  with 
the  French.  His  one  grievance  seemed  to  be 
that  in  view  of  his  fifty  years  they  would  not 
put  him  in  as  a  combatant  and  so  he  had  been 
obliged  to  content  himself  with  the  duties  of  a 
Brancardier,  or  litter  bearer. 

This  he  had  been  doing  since  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  and  knowing  as  I  did,  the  kind  of 
work  that  not  infrequently  falls  to  the  lot  of  the 
litter  bearers  in  their  search  for  wounded,  I 
was  not  sure  that  his  lot  had  always  been  in  the 
easy  places  he  considered  it  had  fallen.  He  was 
sturdy,  and  strong,  a  French  type,  and  blended 
well  with  the  group  which  surrounded  him.  He 
presented  some  of  his  brother  non-commissioned 
officers,  for  he  was  a  Sergeant,  and  we  had  a 
cheerful  chat  and  when  my  French  was  too  tech- 
nical for  the  others  he  set  them  straight  and 
when  they  wandered  too  far  into  the  slang  of  the 

162 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

trenches  he  translated  that  into  equivalent 
American  slang  for  me  and  we  laughed  and 
joked  while  my  friend  the  Surgeon  stood  a  little 
apart  with  an  amused  smile  on  his  face  and 
waited  until  I  should  have  concluded  the  ameni- 
ties with  this  wandering  countryman  of  mine 
who  was  the  link  between  us  both  with  his  love 
of  one  country  and  his  allegiance  to  the  other. 
He  was  a  good  Sergeant,  he  said,  faithful  and 
hard  working  and  deserving  of  much  credit.  I 
saw  other  Evacuation  Hospitals  in  different 
sectors  of  the  line ;  some  of  the  improvised  type 
and  some  constructed  for  the  purpose  as  this 
one  was.  They  all  ran,  however,  on  the  same 
general  plan  and  the  functioning  was  smooth, 
regular  and  almost  automatic.  In  the  elabora- 
tion of  this  step  in  the  care  of  the  wounded  the 
French  have  standardized,  so  to  speak,  the  ad- 
ministrative method  so  that  there  seems  to  be 
little  trouble  with  the  functioning. 

The  units  already  referred  to  constitute  those 
which  are  of  the  most  importance  in  the  Zone 
of  the  Armies,  but  it  must  not  be  inferred  that 

163 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

the  others  which  exist  have  no  place  in  the  Sani- 
tary scheme.  As  they  have  been  referred  to  in 
the  Chapter  on  the  General  Sanitary  system  of 
the  French,  I  make  no  further  reference  to  them 
here. 

I  had  one  personal  experience  with  Military 
Hospitals  which  left  me  with  a  very  pleasant 
impression  and  a  distinct  sense  of  gratitude.  In 
May  1917  it  was  necessary  for  me  to  make  a 
yisit  to  the  British  lines  in  connection  with  some 
official  duty.  We  left  Paris  in  the  early  morn- 
ing, by  automobile,  and  although  I  was  not  feel- 
ing well  when  I  started  I  figured  that  a  run  in 
the  open  car  would  put  me  on  my  feet.  Soon 
after  starting  I  developed  a  persistent  and 
distressing  cough  which  clung  to  me  for  the  150 
miles  that  we  covered  before  noon  at  the  usual 
rapid  French  rate.  I  sat  through  a  long  lunch- 
eon with  a  British  General  and  his  mess  and 
found  it  the  longest  meal  I  had  ever  encountered. 
Immediately  afterward  I  begged  off  from  the 
afternoon  program  of  work  and  asked  if  I  might 
go  to  my  billet  and  lie  down  until  the  next  mom- 

164 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

ing  as  I  was  a  bit  seedy.  A  nice  English  Medi- 
cal Officer  took  me  there  in  his  car,  returned 
with  another  one  and  within  the  hour  I  was 
packed  off  willy-nilly  and  resting  in  the  Officers' 
Ward  of  the  hospital  in  the  town,  with  a  very 
frank  case  of  pneumonia  which  had  been  in 
process  of  development  when  I  left  Paris  and 
which  my  long  ride  in  the  open  motor  had  not 
benefited  to  any  great  extent. 

I  was  an  entire  stranger  to  all  the  Officers 
there,  but  no  one  could  have  received  more  de- 
voted, thoughtful  care  than  was  lavished  on  the 
American  Cousin  by  his  British  kin.  When  the 
bad  days  were  over  and  I  was  able  to  be  up  in  a 
steamer  chair,  my  room  was  full  every  afternoon 
of  nice  British  officers.  They  brought  me  things 
to  read  and  things  to  eat  and  things  to  smoke 
and  things  to  drink  and  sat  all  over  the  shop  and 
laughed  and  talked  and  gave  me  very  clearly  to 
understand  that  I  was  not  a  stranger  in  a 
strange  land,  but  at  home  and  with  my  own 
people.  I  cannot  conceive  of  any  finer,  tactful 
care  than  that  shown  to  me,  a  sick  stranger 

165 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

in  the  little  hospital  at  M .    There  was  cme 

good  looking  youngster  who  came  often  to  see 
me.  He  belonged  to  the  Ancient  Artillery  and 
wore  the  absurd  baggy  knickerbocker  riding 
breeches  which  are  a  mark  of  that  organization. 
One  afternoon,  I  got  up  from  my  chair  and 
floated  uncertainly  over  to  my  clothes  in  the 
closet  and  extracting  one  of  my  cards  from  a 
pocket,  tendered  it  to  him  by  way  of  formal 
introduction.  He  took  it  with  a  quizzical  grim 
and  without  looking  at  it,  said,  "That's  very 
nice  of  you  and  I  am  glad  to  have  the  card, 
but  listen  a  minute  and  see  if  I  really  need  it." 
Then  he  started  and  gave  correctly,  my  full 
name,  age,  place  of  birth,  year  of  entry  into 
the  American  Army,  date  of  departure  from 
the  United  States,  date  of  arrival  in  France 
and  wound  up  with,  "You  are  at  present  living 
with  your  wife  and  two  children  at  the  Hotel 
Regina  in  Paris  and  if  you  will  give  me  a  mes- 
sage to  Mrs.  Church,  I  will  guarantee  that  it 
will  be  in  her  hands  within  twenty  minutes." 
I  asked  him  respectfully  whether  he  was  just  a 

166 


THE  ZONE  OF  THE  ARMIES 

plain  seventh  son,  or  whether  it  was  a  family 
failing.  He  solved  the  puzzle  by  telling  me 
that  he  was  the  Intelligence  Officer  and  that  it 
was  his  business  to  know  all  about  any  one 
who  came  into  that  part  of  the  British  lines, 
which  absolved  him  from  the  suspicion  of  any 
uncanny  powers.  I  did  give  him  the  message 
and  he  telephoned  it  to  Paris  on  his  special  wire 
and  it  did  get  to  its  destination  within  the 
promised  twenty  minutes. 

I  neglected  to  say  that  the  last  thing  I 
heard  on  the  day  of  my  admission  to  that  hos- 
pital, just  as  I  dropped  oj6P  into  a  feverish, 
cough  racked  sleep,  was  the  roar  of  the  "Arch- 
ies," the  anti-aircraft  guns,  as  they  vigorously 
shelled  a  Hun  machine  which  was  over  the  town. 


CHAPTER  V 

TRANSPORTATION 

The  old  saw  runs,  "First  catch  your  hare." 
In  order  that  the  wounded  in  war  may  have  the 
advantage  of  the  necessary  treatment,  it  is  re- 
quisite that  they  be  collected  and  transferred  to 
the  different  stations  established  for  this  pur- 
pose. All  transportation  comes  under  three 
general  heads :  first,  that  of  hand  carriage,  sec- 
ond, by  vehicle,  either  horse  or  motor  driven, 
third,  carriage  by  train  or  boat.  All  are 
important  and  occupy  a  definite  place  in  the 
sanitary  scheme  and  each  one  presents  its  own 
special  problem.  The  collection  by  hand  is 
that  which  is  first  in  the  order  and  involves  the 
moving  of  the  wounded  from  the  place  where 
they  have  fallen  to  the  next  station.  It  is  hard 
and  trying  work,  made  more  so  by  the  fact  that 
much  of  it  has  to  be  carried  out  through  the 

168 


Transport  OF  Wounded  by  Litter  through  a  Trench. 


Wheel  Litter  Transport. 


TRANSPORTATION 

trenches  where  walking  is  difficult  even  when 
not  encumbered  by  a  burden.  Due  to  the  range 
of  modem  Artillery  fire  the  approach  trenches 
may  mean  a  matter  of  one  or  two  miles  through 
which  litters  must  be  carried,  although  this  is 
obviated  at  times  by  evacuation  over  the  normal 
ground  level  at  night  when  darkness  gives  rela- 
tive protection  to  the  working  parties. 

This  class  of  work  is  done  in  the  Regiment, 
by  the  Regimental  Litter  Bearers,  who  form  an 
integral  part  of  each  Regiment,  and  they  are 
supplemented  by  the  personnel  of  the  band  if  the 
Regiment  has  one.  These  bearers  are  supposed 
to  clean  up  for  their  own  Regiment  and  see 
that  the  wounded  are  carried  back  to  the  first 
aid  station.  If  further  hand  transportation  is 
necessary  from  this  point  it  is  furnished  by  the 
Division  Litter  Bearers,  who  are  held  in  re- 
serve by  the  Division  Surgeon  and  sent  in  where 
their  services  are  most  required.  In  many  cases 
the  wounded  are  evacuated  direct  from  the  first 
aid  posts  by  ambulances  which  are  now,  in  the 
vast  majority  of  cases,  motor  driven.    In  addi- 

171 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

tion  to  the  Division  group  of  bearers,  there  is 
another  supplementary  group  which  belongs  to 
the  Army  Corps  and  is  under  the  orders  of  the 
Corps  Surgeon  and  used  in  the  same  manner 
as  that  of  the  Division. 

The  work  of  these  carriers  of  the 
wounded  is  hazardous  as  well  as  being  hard 
physical  work.  The  French  say  that 
"all  shells  are  blind"  and  many  men  of  the  San- 
itary Corps  have  lost  their  lives  while  trying  to 
save  those  of  their  fallen  comrades.  It  has  al- 
ways seemed  to  me  that  much  credit  should  be 
given  to  these  patient  searchers  for  the  wound- 
ed. They  have  none  of  the  spirit  of  the  chase, 
the  excitement  of  conflict,  the  stimulation  of 
battle.  It  is  their  lot  to  plod  along  in  the  shell 
shattered  area  and  clean  up  the  muss  that  their 
combatant  brothers  have  made.  The  wastage 
has  been  high  among  them  although  I  have 
never  seen  any  published  statistics  in  regard  to 
it.  Many  expedients  have  been  tried  to  expedite 
this  hand  labor.  In  the  trenches  themselves, 
much  thought  has  been  given  to  devising  a  litter 

172 


TRANSPORTATION 

which  will  adapt  itself  to  the  narrow  and  tor- 
tuous len^h  of  the  steep  walled  ditches  which 
make  up  these  systems.  Some  of  them  have 
been  fairly  successful,  but  in  the  main,  the 
French  have  depended  on  the  regulation  Franck 
litter  or  on  rude  improvisations  constructed  of 
poles  and  canvas.  One  form,  however,  is  in  ex- 
tended use  although  it  has  no  place  in  the 
trench  proper.  This  is  the  wheel  litter,  and  bj 
its  aid  one  or  two  men  can  transport  a  loaded 
litter  with  the  minimum  exertion  since  the  load 
is  transferred  from  them  to  the  supporting 
wheels.  They  will  go  almost  anywhere  that  a 
wheelbarrow  can  be  pushed  and  are  extremely 
practical.  I  think  that  the  most  satisfactory 
one  that  I  saw  in  operation  was  conducted  by 
two  surly  looking  Boche  prisoners  presided  over 
by  a  French  guard.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
war  the  French  were  almost  entirely  dependent 
for  wheel  transportation  on  horse  drawn  ve- 
hicles. There  were  plans  for  motor  ambulance 
sections,  but  only  a  few  of  them  were  in  actual 
operation  and  the  most  of  the  transfer  was  done 

173 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

either  by  the  little  two  wheeled  ambulances  or 
their  big  brothers  with  four.  It  was  a  very 
short  time  before  the  superiority  of  the  gas 
engine  over  man's  patient  friend  and  ally,  the 
horse,  became  evident,  and  practically  every- 
thing was  turned  over  to  the  gas  driven  car. 

An  orderly  system  was  rapidly  evolved  in  the 
operation  of  these  and  at  the  present  time  the 
make  up  of  the  Sections  is  not  radically  differ- 
ent from  what  it  was  in  the  first  days  of  their 
use.  There  were  mechanical  questions  to  be  set- 
tled of  course,  in  regard  to  construction,  type 
of  engine,  weight  of  car  and  capacity  of  the  car 
for  wounded.  Some  of  these  problems  took 
much  trial  for  their  adjustment  and  others  set- 
tled themselves  very  promptly  by  the  aid  of 
practical  experience. 

As  an  example  of  the  latter,  there 
is  the  method  of  putting  the  litters  in 
the  ambulance.  Each  car  has  a  capacity 
of  a  certain  number  of  litters,  each  carrying  its 
wounded  man ;  some  three,  some  four  and  others 
five.     This  necessitates  that  some  of  the  litters 

174 


TRANSPORTATION 

shall  be  suspended  above  the  floor  of  the  car» 
Some  one  seeking  to  devise  a  method  by  which 
the  wounded  should  travel  with  as  little  shock 
as  possible,  devised  the  scheme  of  suspending 
these  upper  litters  by  straps  which  were  at- 
tached to  the  uprights  by  coiled  springs.  It 
was  thought  that  in  this  way  the  jar  of  the  road 
would  be  taken  up  and  much  added  to  the  com- 
fort of  the  patient.  It  was  very  quickly  dis- 
covered by  those  who  drove  the  motors  that  the 
reverse  was  the  truth.  The  suspended  patients, 
in  addition  to  having  the  inequalities  of  the  road 
accentuated  by  this  system  of  suspension,  were 
subjected  to  a  back  and  forth  swing, — thrust, 
which  was  practicably  unbearable.  You  can 
readily  understand  it  if  you  will  imagine  your- 
self with  a  shattered  thigh  on  a  litter  which  is 
swaying  back  and  forth  from  head  to  foot  with 
each  move  of  the  motor  and  grinding  together 
the  two  ends  of  the  splintered  bone.  The  man 
who  was  placed  on  the  floor  of  the  car  was  the 
fortunate  soul  and  the  drivers  brought  com- 
parative peace  and  comfort  to  the  inhabitants 

175 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

of  the  upper  tier  by  boring  holes  in  the  wooden 
sides  of  the  car  and  lashing  the  oscillating 
stretchers  fast  and  immovable.  It  was  only  a 
short  time  before  the  spring  suspension,  or  any 
suspension,  was  looked  on  as  obsolete  and  the 
cars  built  with  channeled  runways  into  which 
the  shoes  of  the  stretcher  fitted.  This  method 
has  persisted  and  has  not  only  made  things  eas- 
ier for  the  sorely  tried  passengers,  but  has 
facilitated  the  question  of  loading. 

There  were  long  and  sometimes  bitter  argu- 
ments between  the  advocates  of  the  light  and  the 
heavy  type  of  car  and  each  side  claimed  for  its 
preferred  type  many  advantages  which  probably 
did  not  exist  and  overlooked  others  which  did.  It 
was  finally  demonstrated  that  there  was  a  place 
for  both  kinds,  and  thereafter  "the  tumult  and 
the  shouting  died."  To  speak  of  a  product  so 
well  known  as  the  Ford  motor  can  scarcely  be 
considered  as  advertising.  Many  of  this  make 
of  automobile  were  taken  to  France  and  there 
was  much  discussion  as  to  the  merits  of  them  for 
the  work  to  which  they  were  put.    As  with  the 

176 


TRANSPORTATION 

general  argument  for  the  heavy  and  light  cars 
they  had  their  partisans  and  those  who  opposed 
them.  The  early  ones  in  use  did  have  several 
faults  which  were  overcome  by  later  modifica- 
tions. The  long  overhang  of  the  body  put  an  un- 
due strain  on  the  supporting  sills  which  were 
prone  to  break  and  this  added  weight  was  also 
too  great  a  tax  on  the  8  leaf  rear  spring.  When 
the  sills  were  made  stronger  and  another  leaf 
added  to  the  spring  this  objection  was  over- 
come. Their  lightness  was  an  advantage  inas- 
much as  when  one  ran  off  the  road  it  was  a 
simple  matter  to  put  it  back  by  the  aid  of  four 
or  five  men,  and  there  are  always  four  or  five 
men  on  any  of  the  roads  in  the  Zone  of  the 
Armies  in  the  France  of  wartime.  Due  also 
to  their  light  weight  they  will  go,  and  can  be 
driven  where  heavier  cars  would  "bog  down." 
I  found  the  French  in  the  Vosges  mountains 
very  much  in  their  favor  for  use  in  that  pre- 
cipitous country.  On  the  other  hand  I  heard 
that  they  did  not  wear  as  well  as  some  of  the 
more  expensive  cars  and  were  an  undue  expense 

177 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

for  upkeep.  I  hold  no  brief,  either  for  or 
against  them,  and  I  have  mentioned  these  facts 
merely  because  they  are  really  a  national  insti- 
tution and  I  have  been  many  times  asked  as  to 
their  utility  in  this  class  of  war. 

The  French  have  adopted  for  their  heavier 
type  of  car,  a  body  which  holds  five  recumbent 
cases,  four  of  them  on  the  channeled  rimners 
already  referred  to  and  the  fifth  on  the  floor  of 
the  car  underneath  them.  This  was  an  evolution 
of  the  four  case  body  and  it  can  be  readily  seen 
when  we  multiply  one  car  by  the  twenty,  which 
make  up  a  section,  and  those  twenty  by  the  num- 
ber of  trips  made  that  the  addition  of  even  one 
case  to  the  carrying  capacity  of  a  car  is  a  very 
appreciable  advantage  in  the  question  of  evacu- 
ation. The  personnel  of  these  Sections  is  about 
forty  men  and  presided  over  by  two  commis- 
sioned officers.  They  are  self-contained  units, 
and  carry  their  own  cook  and  tentage  to  shel- 
ter them  at  the  sector  at  which  they  are  at 
work.  They  are,  as  is  all  Motor  transport  in 
the  French  Army,  under  the  direction  of  the 

178 


TRANSPORTATION 

Automobile  Service.  This  does  not  mean  that 
they  have  their  duties  prescribed  for  them  by 
this  service,  but  that  so  far  as  mechanical  di- 
rection goes  they  are  responsible  to  it.  Their 
spare  parts  come  from  it  and  the  replacement 
cars  to  take  the  place  of  those  shot  up  or  worn 
out.  So  far  as  their  actual  running  duty  goes, 
they  are  under  the  orders  of  the  Chief  Surgeon 
of  the  Sector  in  which  they  work.  He  lays  out 
their  schedule  and  the  Officers  in  command  of 
the  Sections  are  held  responsible  that  the  sec- 
tion does  its  work  in  accordance  with  the  di- 
rections it  receives.  They  are  a  roving  or- 
ganization, here  to-day  and  gone  to-morrow, 
and  they  foregather  where  there  is  the  shock 
of  battle  and  the  blood  flows  fastest.  Natural- 
ly there  is  but  little  work  for  them  in  a  peaceful 
sector  and  they  are  drafted  to  those  in  which 
there  is  real  activity.  They  have  proved  de- 
voted in  their  duties  and  have  gained  much 
commendation  from  their  brothers  in  the  line 
who  are  dependent  on  them  for  transport  when 
German  ammunition  has  laid  them  low. 

179 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

Prior  to  our  entry  in  the  war  a  very  appre- 
ciable proportion  of  this  collecting  work  was 
done  by  American  volunteers  who  worked  under 
two  different  organizations,  the  American  Am- 
bulance Service  (later  the  American  Field 
Service)  and  another  series  of  sections  organ- 
ized under  the  direction  of  the  Red  Cross.  This 
service  was  built  up  from  small  beginnings  and 
in  the  course  of  time  came  to  be  an  important 
adjunct  to  the  French  sections  engaged  in  the 
work.  At  first  there  was  some  difficulty  due 
to  the  fact  that  it  was,  as  is  universally  the 
case,  difficult  to  adjust  questions  of  discipline 
in  a  volunteer  organization.  When  this  condi- 
tion was  recognized  it  was  met  by  measures 
which  did  away  with  the  objectionable  feature 
and  thereafter  the  functioning  of  the  service  was 
smooth  and  satisfactory.  The  French  system 
was  adopted  and  the  make  up  of  the  volunteer 
sections  was  identical  with  those  of  the  regular 
French  army.  A  French  officer  was  put  in  com- 
mand of  each  section  and  the  American  volun- 
teers worked   under  his   command.      The  per- 

180 


TRANSPORTATION 

sonnel  was  under  a  pledge  to  serve  with  tke 
section  for  a  minimum  of  six  months  and  manj 
of  them  renewed  the  obligation. 

The  result  of  this  voluntary  aid  was  an  ad- 
vantage to  the  French  in  the  material  help  af- 
forded and  to  our  own  country  in  the  experience 
and  training  it  gave  to  the  men  who  after  our 
entry  in  the  war  were  qualified  to  do  the  work 
themselves  for  their  own  people.  The  French 
were  entirely  appreciative  of  the  efforts  of  these 
two  services  and  at  a  time  when  there  was  much 
speculation  as  to  what  was  to  be  the  attitude  of 
America  in  the  war  the  presence  of  these  men  in 
this  active  capacity  did  much  to  retain  the  con- 
fidence of  our  Allies  as  to  our  ultimate  inten- 
tions. I  heard  many  comments  by  my  French 
friends  in  respect  to  the  good  work  accom- 
plished by  these  American  Sections  and  they 
were  always  accompanied  by  warm  appreciation 
and  entire  affection.  At  the  beginning  of  our 
part  in  the  war  these  services  were  absorbed  by 
our  army  and  many  of  the  personnel  remained  to 
carry  out  as  enlisted  men  and  officers  under  our 

181 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

own  flag  the  duties  they  had  learned  as  volun- 
teers with  a  foreign  force.  The  duties  which 
fall  to  the  Ambulance  driver  are  by  no  means  a 
sinecure.  They  call  for  resourcefulness,  for 
self  reliance,  stamina  and  a  disregard  for  per- 
sonal safety.  To  drive  a  smoothly  running 
motor  on  a  good  road  with  clear  daylight  or 
adequate  illumination  by  lamps  is  a  very  dif- 
ferent proposition  from  nursing  a  heavy  car  at 
a  low  rate  of  speed  over  a  road  pitted  with 
shell  holes  and  subjected  to  intense  bombard- 
ment. 

No  one  who  has  not  had  the  doubtful  pleas* 
ure  of  riding  in  an  ambulance  under  such  con- 
ditions can  appreciate  what  it  means.  There  is 
no  darkness  so  black  as  that  of  these  cloud 
draped  French  skies  where  light  comes  only 
from  star  rockets.  One  cannot  see ;  he  must  go 
I  think  by  intuition.  There  are  a  thousand 
things  to  confuse  and  puzzle :  the  general  lay  of 
the  road  must  be  in  the  driver's  mind,  with  all 
shell  holes  and  obstructions  registered  in  his 
mental  processes  and  even  so  he  has  no  assur- 

182 


TRANSPORTATION 

ance  that  since  he  has  last  traversed  the  way 
of  his  coming  some  fresh  shell  burst  has  not 
opened  up  a  new  pitfall  to  catch  him  and  his 
wounded  cargo.  He  must  dodge  the  traffic  of 
the  "ravitaillement"  convoys,  the  camions  which 
each  night  bring  up  to  the  front  lines  over 
these  blasted  thoroughfares  the  supplies  for  the 
front  that  can  come  up  only  under  the  shield- 
ing protection  of  the  darkness.  He  must  expect 
damage  to  his  car  and  to  himself  by  shell  burst 
and  carry  on  as  long  as  he  can  even  if  wounded, 
or  put  his  car  again  in  condition  to  travel  if 
within  range  of  human  possibility.  And  he 
must  make  his  repairs  in  the  dark,  by  the  sense 
of  touch  and  with  the  certain  knowledge  that 
other  shell  may  come  before  his  task  is  finished 
and  blow  him  and  his  machine  and  his  wounded 
man  in  a  gory  tangle  of  torn  flesh  and  broken 
wood  and  twisted  iron  far  past  any  chance  of 
recognition. 

He  must  expect  to  drive  through  gas 
when  his  sight  is  not  only  obscured  by  the 
cloud  but  by  the  mask  he  wears  for  protection. 

183 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

He  must  forget  that  there  are  hours  when  the 
human  system  cries  out  for  rest  and  repose,  and 
so  long  as  there  are  wounded  waiting  for  trans- 
port from  the  front  to  their  place  in  the  rear 
of  the  line  he  must  keep  his  heavy  eyes  open 
and  with  clear  brain  and  a  high  heart  shut  his 
teeth  tight  on  the  sense  of  hunger  and  fatigue 
and  cold  and  danger  and  drive,  drive,  drive; 
until  the  front  is  clear  so  far  as  his  sector  is 
concerned,  and  then,  perhaps  if  the  fates  are 
not  kind  to  him,  hustle  off  to  an  adjoining  sec- 
tor to  lend  willing  if  tired  hands  to  those  who 
need  them  there.  Twenty-four  hours,  thirty-six 
hours  at  a  stretch  is  no  novelty  in  his  day's 
work  and  he  does  it  with  the  cheerful  sang  froid 
of  the  clean  bred  American  who  knows  how  to 
spend  and  spare  not  when  he  considers  that 
it  is  "up  to  him."  This  is  the  class  of  work  that 
was  so  well  done  by  these  two  volunteer  organ- 
izations and  it  is  little  wonder  to  me  that  the 
French  were  fond  of  these  boy  drivers  of  theirs 
who  held  their  chins  high  and  with  a  cheerful 
grin  and  an  impudent  cigarette  in  the  corner  of 

184 


Ambulance  Drawn  by  Dogs. 


Sanitary    Do( 


Red    Cross    Dog  "- 
Wounds. 


-Dressing    his 


TRANSPORTATION 

their  mouths  drove  through  Hell  with  entire 
apparent  unconcern.  They  did  not  all  drive 
through  though,  for  sometimes  the  red  flare  of 
the  burst  carried  the  steel  fragments  home  and 
stilled  the  brave  hearts  beneath  the  rough 
clothes. 

Cross  guarded  mounds,  from  the  Vosges  up 
through  Verdun  and  on  beyond  the  plains  of 
Picardy,  mark  where  these  young  seekers  of  the 
Great  Adventure  have  found  that  which  they 
had  so  often  regarded  unafraid  with  their  frank 
boyish  eyes.  During  the  latter  part  of  my  ser- 
vice in  France  I  was  sorry  to  see  in  one  of  the 
papers  of  Paris  which  is  printed  in  English  a 
rather  bitter  and  I  thought  unwarranted  criti- 
cism of  the  many  young  men  who  made  up  the 
personnel  of  these  two  services.  I  had  the  op- 
portunity to  know  many  of  them  and  I  am  glad 
to  bear  testimony  that  those  I  saw  were  straight 
and  clean  and  unafraid.  They  were  a  credit  to 
our  Great  Republic  and  the  memory  they  left 
after  them  is  one  that  will  remain  green  in  the 
hearts  of  our  allies  and  is  one  which  we  should 

187 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

cherish,  the  record  of  fine  service  done  un-asked, 
of  labor  and  strength  and  life  given  because 
thej  believed  the  cause  was  their  cause  and  in 
this  way  only  could  they  at  that  time  bear  testi- 
mony. 

At  the  time  we  took  our  place  in  the  ranks 
of  those  opposed  to  the  Hun  menace  this  service 
was  taken  over  and  administered  by  our  own 
army  and  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  make,  un- 
der General  Pershing's  order,  an  inspection  of 
the  American  Field  Service  that  I  might  report 
to  him  their  availability  for  incorporation  into 
our  own  forces.  In  company  with  the  Director 
of  the  service  I  not  only  went  over  the  complete 
installation  in  Paris,  where  the  central  offices, 
the  receiving  barracks  and  the  various  repair 
and  construction  shops  were  located,  but  in 
company  with  him  I  spent  some  days  at  various 
points  of  the  front  that  I  might  be  in  a  posi- 
tion to  report  not  only  on  the  general  organiza- 
tion and  the  material  resources,  but  as  to  the 
actual  working  conditions  of  the  sections  under 
field  conditions.    This  tour  carried  us  from  the 

188 


TRANSPORTATION 

always  interesting  Verdun  sector  on  the  South 
up  the  line  to  that  man  made  hell  the  Chemin- 
des-Dames.  We  left  Paris  in  the  early  day  of 
a  summer  morning  in  a  large  and  perfectly 
capable  Peerless  car  driven  by  a  taciturn  young 
man  who  was  as  capable  as  the  car  and  exacted 
from  it  relentlessly  as  much  kinetic  energy  as 
was  potentially  stored  under  the  long  black 
engine  hood. 

We  went  out  over  the  smooth  straight  line 
of  the  Route  National  to  Montmirail  where 
stands  one  of  the  many  monuments  of  France, 
this  one  now  scarred  but  not  broken  by  the 
German  shells  which  struck  it  during  the  hard 
days  of  1914.  We  ate  a  cold  lunch  in  the  car, 
and  literally  I  do  not  remember  that  I  ever  had 
a  meal  go  so  far,  as  we  were  reeling  off  steady 
mile  after  mile  at  fifty,  fifty-two  and  fifty-eight 
to  the  hour.  Travel  by  motor  is  not  regarded 
as  a  pleasure  in  France  to-day ;  it  is  an  errand, 
a  method  of  annihilating  the  space  that  exists 
between  "here"  and  "there",  and  your  chauffeur 
gives  his  entire  and  silent  attention  to  seeing 

189 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

that  there  are  no  wasted  seconds  in  transit.  I 
have  a  private  suspicion  that  he  sometimes 
makes  it  a  sporting  proposition  with  himself. 
There  was  a  big  French  staff  car  in  front  of 
us  which  I  soon  realized  must  be  passed,  though 
why  I  do  not  to  this  day  know.  With  my  mouth 
full  of  cold  chicken  and  hard  boiled  egg  I 
watched  the  speedometer,  which  read  in  miles, 
creep  from  fifty  to  fifty-five,  jump  to  sixty  and 
then  while  the  needle  danced  drunkenly  above 
sixty-eight  there  was  the  throb  and  roar  of 
passing  engines  and  we  sailed  triumphantly 
away  ahead. 

The  speed  laws  of  France  to-day  are 
very  explicit  and  entirely  exact:  they  are 
based  altogether  on  the  power  of  your  engine 
and  your  own  confidence  in  your  maker, — of 
your  car.  We  visited  a  school  of  mechanics 
and  construction  where  the  personnel  of  the 
service  was  sent  for  a  course  in  both  the  theory 
and  practice  of  driving  and  repairing  cars  and 
in  the  technique  of  handling  and  managing  con- 
voys.    There  were  lectures  by  officers  of  the 

190 


TRANSPORTATION 

French  Automobile  Service  with  blackboard  dia- 
grams and  formulas  which  looked  decidedly 
technical,  and  there  was  a  well  equipped  work 
shop  where  these  student  volunteers  were  taught 
to  take  to  pieces  and  assemble  various  makes  of 
engines  and  to  make  such  repairs  as  would  fall 
to  the  lot  of  the  ordinary,  or  better  said,  ex- 
traordinary, chauffeur  under  the  many  adverse 
conditions  which  were  thereafter  to  be  his  nor- 
mal daily  surroundings.  It  seemed  thorough 
and  practical  and  the  Director  told  me  that  it 
was  a  manifest  advantage  and  that  in  this  way 
they  were  able  to  turn  out  men  who  in  addition 
to  being  good  drivers  had  also  sufncient  tech- 
nical knowledge  to  render  them  of  value  for 
positions  which  necessitated  more  than  an  un- 
derstanding of  the  requirements  of  the  throttle 
and  the  brake.  The  lectures  were  all  in  French, 
and  I  am  sure  that  the  absorption  of  this  tech- 
nical lore  in  a  strange  language  was  not  alto- 
gether a  light  and  easy  task.  It  was  good  prac- 
tice however  since  their  duties  would  lie  with 
those  who  spoke  no  other  language  and  with  the 

191 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

easy  facility  of  youth  they  seemed  to  be  entirely 
undisturbed  by  the  fact  that  they  must  think  in 
a  foreign  tongue. 

From  the  school  we  went  on  through  Chalons- 
sur-Marne  and  St.  Menhould  and  Clermont-en- 
Argonne  and  up  to  a  Section  which  was  operat- 
ing behind  the  Avocourt  sector  in  the  Bois  de 
Hesse.  This  is  all  N.E.  of  Verdun  and  there 
has  been  much  hard  fighting  in  the  country  and 
the  life  of  a  Section  on  duty  in  this  vicinity  is 
sure  to  be  a  busy  one  at  some  time  of  its  stay. 
The  day  we  were  there  was  one  of  comparative 
quiet.  Comparative  quiet  on  the  western  front 
should  not  bring  to  the  mind  of  any  one  an 
idyllic,  lazy,  drowsy  summer  day.  The  word 
"comparative"  was  I  think  invented  for  battle 
use  and  it  is  easy  for  one  to  say  in  regard  to 
existent  conditions,  it  is  "comparatively  quiet 
to-day."  I  have  seen  times  when  I  thought 
that  indeed  comparisons  were  odious.  As  there 
is  always  motion  in  the  sea  even  in  time  of  ab- 
solute calm,  so  on  this  tossed  and  troubled  field 
of  war,  comparative  quiet  does  not  mean  a  cessa- 

192 


TRANSPORTATION 

tion  of  gunfire,  an  absence  of  war's  furors.  It 
is,  I  think,  in  line  with  the  leading  western  citi- 
zen's eulogy  over  the  body  of  the  dead  bad  man 
of  whom  the  best  he  could  say  was,  "Brethren, 
he  might  have  been  a  damn  sight  worse." 

We  inspected  the  quarters  of  the  drivers 
which  were  the  usual  French  billet,  barns  and 
sheds  commandeered  for  the  purpose  but  cleaned 
and  in  order  with  commendable  American  neat- 
ness. We  looked  over  the  row  of  waiting  Ambu- 
lances and  lifted  hood  after  hood  to  see  if  we 
could  find  a  dirty  engine,  which  we  did  not,  and 
we  had  our  attention  called  by  the  fresh  faced 
drivers  to  the  jagged  holes  in  the  wood  work 
or  the  white  scars  on  the  iron  where  Boche  shells 
had  left  their  biting  mark  during  such  and  such 
a  run.  They  were  proud  of  those  scars  of 
service  and  I  do  not  blame  them.  We  went  with 
the  American  Section  Chief,  for  there  is  an 
American  Assistant  Chief  as  well  as  the  French 
officer  who  is  in  supreme  charge,  up  to  the  first 
aid  post  which  drained  the  front  trenches  of  this 
sector.     There  we  found  an  Ambulance  pro- 

193 


THE  DOCTOR^S  PART 

tected  from  shell  fire  behind  some  debris  and  a 
segment  of  still  standing  wall  and  down  in  a 
dugout  two  blase  youths  who  were  playing  list- 
less casino  and  complaining  that  it  was  unutter- 
ably stupid  that  day  with  no  excitement  and 
nothing  to  do.  From  here  we  went  on  ahead 
through  the  green  of  the  Forest  to  one  of  the 
French  observation  posts  presided  over  by  a 
smart  little  French  Corporal  and  one  or  two 
men.  From  this  there  was  a  good  view  of  the 
German  lines  not  far  distant  and  with  the  aid 
of  a  pair  of  good  glasses  it  was  possible  to  make 
out  very  plainly  the  trend  of  the  enemy  trenches 
and  the  tangled  mass  of  his  barbed  wire  which 
loomed  on  the  other  side  of  that  bare  waste 
of  "No  Man's  Land." 

The  next  day  we  spent  in  looking  over  var- 
ious sections  in  the  vicinity  of  Verdun  and  in 
the  evening  were  off  again  to  the  Northeast  of 
Verdun  where  we  dined  at  the  mess  of  one  of 
the  sections  which  was  on  duty  in  the  Sector 
comprising  the  Mort  Homme  and  Hill  304«, 
points  which  at  that  time  were  fiercely  disputed 

194 


TRANSPORTATION 

bj  both  the  French  and  Germans.  This  was 
just  prior  to  the  drive  in  July  1917  in  which 
the  French  retook  both  these  points  and  ex- 
tended their  lines  to  the  point  they  had  occu- 
pied at  the  time  of  the  initial  thrust  of  the 
troops  of  the  Crown  Prince  in  his  hapless  quest 
for  the  pass  at  Verdun.  I  had  been  in  hopes 
of  making  this  visit  at  the  time  of  the  Infantry 
assault,  but  got  there  too  early  and  had  to  con- 
tent myself  with  the  Artillery  preparation.  As 
a  spectacle  this  is  all  that  could  be  desired  and 
as  for  overwhelming  insistent  noise  it  goes  far 
beyond  anything  that  the  imagination  can  con- 
ceive. The  headquarters  of  this  section  were 
at  that  time  at  Villes-sur-Cousines  (since  this 
ground  has  passed  well  into  French  control 
there  seems  to  be  no  reason  for  avoiding  names) 
and  here  were  the  cars  of  the  unit,  save  those 
which  were  on  duty  at  the  different  advance 
posts,  and  here  were  the  repair  shop  and  the 
quarters  and  mess  of  the  men  who  made  up  the 
section. 

After  a  cheerful  supply  with  the  personnel 

196 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

I  set  out  with  the  French  Lieutenant  in 
command  to  inspect  the  forward  work  of  the 
Section.  The  evacuation  of  the  wounded,  save 
in  time  of  intense  activity,  was  carried  on  in 
the  dusk  and  in  the  night,  since  much  of  the  road 
traversed  in  doing  this  lay  within  plain  view  of 
the  German  lines  about  the  Mort  Homme  and 
Hill  304  and  they  were  not  backward  about 
shelling  any  moving  transport  on  the  roads. 
We  went  in  a  Ford  car  up  through  Dombasle, 
from  which  the  section  had  been  recently  shelled 
out,  over  roads  which  grew  progressively  worse, 
until  we  came  to  the  town  of  Montzeville.  The 
roar  of  the  guns  grew  louder  as  we  advanced 
and  before  we  reached  Montzeville  we  came  into 
the  area  in  which  French  batteries  were  posted, 
and  in  action.  So  well  and  carefully  is  artil- 
lery now  concealed  that  it  was  a  difficult  matter 
to  make  out  the  location  of  the  batteries  save 
from  the  flash  of  the  guns  themselves.  It  is 
distinctly  disconcerting  to  have  a  battery  of 
which  you  have  no  previous  knowledge,  fire  a 
salvo   from   your  immediate  vicinity;   to  hear 

196 


TRANSPORTATION 

the  shells  tear  their  way  over  your  head  and 
to  feel  the  shock  of  the  concussion.  It  shakes 
you  mentally  and  physically  and  the  first  of 
these  literally  raised  me  off  my  seat  to  the 
amusement  of  the  French  Lieutenant.  The 
Germans  were  searching  for  these  batteries  with 
good  sized  shells  and  the  black  clouds  of  their 
bursts  dotted  the  hills  all  about  and  the  sharp 
roar  of  their  explosions  added  to  the  noise  of 
the  French  artillery.  One  dropped  on  a  bat- 
tery near  the  road  as  we  came  along  and  killed 
one  of  the  gun  crew.  They  brought  him  in  to 
the  aid  station,  his  face  covered  with  a  cloth 
through  which  the  red  stains  showed. 

His  body  was  placed  in  an  angle  of  the  wall 
on  the  stretcher  and  excited  no  comment  and 
apparently  no  curiosity.  One  chatted  or 
laughed  or  smoked  a  foot  away  and  it  all  seemed 
a  matter  of  course;  that  which  had  happened 
to  him  to-day  might  happen  to  any  one  to- 
morrow and  was  only  a  part  of  the  day's  work. 
Of  course  that  is  the  only  rational  way  to  view 
it,  for  war  is  a  gamble  for  the  individual  at 

197 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

"best,  but  it  seemed  very  close  and  personal  to 
see  this  healthy  sweating  peasant  turned  in  a 
minute  from  a  living  entity  to  a  mangled  shape 
whose  only  further  end  was  burial  in  one  of  the 
cross  crowned  little  cemeteries  which  mark  so 
much  of  France  to-day. 

Montzeville  itself  was  a  husk  of  a  town.  Of 
course  no  one  lived  there  save  the  troops  who 
were  on  duty  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  The 
houses  were  roofless  shells,  pitted  and  scarred 
by  the  German  gunfire  and  the  once  tidy  street 
was  pock  marked  with  shell  holes  and  littered 
with  debris.  We  left  the  Ford  car  here  and, 
after  visiting  the  little  dugout  which  pro- 
yided  shelter  for  the  small  number  of  Sani- 
tary personnel  on  duty  and  the  wounded 
from  the  nearby  batteries,  I  changed  to  an 
Ambulance  which  was  to  go  forward  to  Esnes, 
to  wait  there  during  the  night  on  emergency 
duty ;  to  bring  back  any  cases  which  might  not 
be  able  to  wait  long  for  treatment.  This  am- 
bulance bore  the  mark  of  shell  explosion  and  the 
boy  driver  who  was  in  charge  of  it  told  me 

198 


TRANSPORTATION 

that  it  was  quite  customary  to  be  shelled  on 
the  way  to  Esnes,  and  especially  at  one  point 
where  the  road  made  a  sharp  turn  and  ran  for  a 
way  parallel  to  and  in  plain  sight  of  both  the 
Mort  Homme  and  Hill  304.  He  told  me  that 
they  usually  ran  with  two  men  on  the  front  seat 
so  that  if  the  driver  were  hit  the  other  could 
take  the  wheel  if  he  himself  escaped.  As  I 
was  not  myself  a  competent  chauffeur  I  won- 
dered what  would  be  the  fate  of  that  particular 
car  if  anything  happened  to  him  at  the  turn 
that  night. 

We  picked  our  way  slowly  in  the  fad- 
ing light  over  a  road  that  was  bad  because 
it  was  pitted  with  shell  holes,  littered  with  vari- 
ous obstructions  and  covered  with  a  coating  of 
greasy  mud.  All  around  us,  before,  behind  and 
on  either  side  the  French  batteries  of  large  and 
small  caliber  were  in  action  and  the  air  was 
full  of  the  scream  of  the  departing  shell  and 
also  punctuated  by  the  drone  of  the  German 
projectiles  which  were  searching  for  them  in 
counter  battery  work.     It  was  slow  going  and, 

199 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

if  progress  was  no  more  rapid  under  these  con- 
ditions when  it  was  possible  to  see  the  way,  I 
wondered  what  it  was  when  you  had  to  feel  out 
your  route  in  inky  blackness,  threading  a  pre- 
carious way  through  the  maze  of  transport 
which  each  evening  crowds  the  road.  Every- 
thing along  here  bore  testimony  to  the  fact 
that  it  was  the  scene  of  conflict.  There  was 
the  active  evidence  of  the  French  batteries  in 
action  and  the  burst  of  the  German  shells  in 
reply. 

Everywhere  were  the  craters  of  former 
explosions  and  new  ones  forming  at  various 
points.  What  few  trees  remained  were  riven 
and  splintered,  hanging  their  withered  heads  in 
token  of  the  blast  which  had  swept  over  all  this 
once  fair  landscape.  There  is  an  incongruity 
about  a  battleground  in  a  cultivated  country. 
It  seems  all  wrong  somehow ;  not  to  belong ;  as 
though  some  black  hideous  excrescence  had  ap- 
peared on  a  flowering  plant.  There  yet  remain 
enough  of  the  landmarks  of  happy  peace  to 
show  what   had   existed   before   the   scorching 

^00 


TRANSPORTATION 

breath  of  war  and  passion  had  swept  over  every- 
thing turning  the  green  to  brown  and  breaking 
and  twisting  into  fantastic  shapes  all  the  home- 
ly marks  of  normal  existence.  We  crept  on  in 
the  glow  of  the  sunset  up  the  battered  road 
going  straight  toward  the  Mort  Homme  which 
showed  as  a  dominant  height  wreathed  and 
dotted  with  the  white  bursts  of  the  French 
shells  which  sprang  up  one  after  another  over 
its  face  as  the  shells  landed  and  exploded.  We 
were  not  shelled  at  the  turn  this  night,  but  as 
we  turned  and  began  our  run  parallel  to  the 
Hill  304  on  the  road  which  ran  into  Esnes, 
(pronounced,  "N")  German  shrapnel  began  to 
break  before,  behind  and  on  either  side  of  the 
road.  I  do  not  think  they  were  looking  par- 
ticularly for  the  ambulance,  it  was  just  a  part 
of  a  methodical  search  for  the  batteries  which 
were  in  action  against  their  positions.  None 
of  the  shells  burst  very  close  to  us,  the  nearest 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  away  I  sup- 
pose, but  it  was  enough  to  give  one  an  idea  of 
sudden  death  or  mangled  after  existence. 

201 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

We  jolted  into  Esnes  over  a  road  which  grew 
progressively  worse  and  was  littered  with  brick 
and  fallen  masonry  and  tiles  which  had  been  dis- 
lodged from  the  houses  of  the  little  village. 
Esnes  was  Montzeville  over  again,  only  accen- 
tuated. No  one  was  here  either  save  the  sol- 
dier garrison  and  it  seemed  a  ghost  of  a  place 
in  the  fading  light  of  the  summer  twilight.  The 
house  fronts  without  their  roofs  shone  gray 
and  ghastly  in  the  twilight  and  the  shell  holes 
in  them  were  black  and  ragged.  Shells  were 
bursting  in  many  parts  of  the  town  and  their 
explosion  was  followed  by  the  downrush  of 
masonry  and  the  tinkle  of  falling  tiles.  We 
went  on  up  a  street  past  the  body  of  a  dead 
horse  whose  stiff  legs  pointed  grotesquely  up 
to  heaven,  the  one  remaining  evidence,  save  some 
dark  stains  on  the  ground,  of  where  eight  men 
of  the  transport  train  had  been  caught  in  a 
shell  explosion  the  night  before  and  their  lives 
blown  quickly  out.  Even  as  we  came  up  a 
fatigue  party  came  out  with  picks  and  shovels, 
and  under  the  constant  urging  of  a  non-com- 

202 


TRANSPORTATION 

missioned  officer  hurriedly  put  this  last  dis- 
torted evidence  under  ground.  Everything  is 
done  hurriedly  that  can  be  so  accomplished,  in 
this  region  where  death  drops  unexpected  from 
the  skies  and  no  man  is  safe  save  he  be  protected 
by  solid  earth  and  rock  above  his  head. 

The  first  aid  post  was  in  the  cellar  of  an  old 
chateau.  The  usual  type,  the  brick  and  stone 
arches  reinforced  by  stout  timber  uprights  to 
make  assurance  as  doubly  sure  as  might  be.  The 
entrance  was  down  a  flight  of  stone  stairs  and 
the  interior  dark  and  low  and  crowded  with 
bunks,  wounded  and  the  personnel  who  cared 
for  them.  Coming  in  from  the  light  one  had  to 
go  slowly  in  this  c  usky  cave  to  avoid  stepping 
on  some  silent  figure  which  waited  with  charac- 
teristic stoic  patience  his  turn  to  be  transferred 
to  some  place  where  he  should  receive  care  for 
his  wound,  clean  bed  and  quiet  surroundings. 
It  was  all  rather  like  one  of  Dante's  word  pic' 
tures.  The  gloomy  darkness  punctuated  by 
the  flare  of  the  torch  like  lamps  and  the  candles, 
the  smell  of  blood  and  drugs,  the  thick  shadows 

SOS 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

which  lurked  in  the  corners  and  threw  into  re- 
lief the  staring  white  of  the  fresh  bandages  and 
the  pale  gray  of  the  upturned  faces.  It  seemed 
very  fitting  somehow  that  the  setting  of  the 
picture  should  be  underground,  for  it  was  cer- 
tainly associated  with  death  and  all  that  goes 
with  it. 

I  made  the  rounds  of  the  little  estab- 
lishment with  the  Surgeon  on  duty  there  and 
he  explained  his  cases  to  me  and  the  means  he 
had  of  caring  for  those  who  came  to  him  for 
this  the  first  step  on  their  road  to  cure.  There 
is  not  much,  of  course,  which  can  be  done  in 
a  unit  of  this  kind:  only  the  simpler  kinds  of 
work.  One  stops  hemorrhage  of  course,  if  it 
exists,  injections  of  Anti-tetanic  serum  are  ad- 
ministered, splints  are  adjusted  and  the  men 
given  broth  and  stimulants  if  required.  The 
first  aid  post  is  just  a  check  point  to  insure  that 
the  wounded  who  go  from  it  shall  leave  in  the 
best  shape  possible  to  make  the  trip  to  the 
unit  further  back.  It  makes  no  pretence  at 
anything  in  the  way  of  formal  work.     All  that 

204 


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TRANSPORTATION 

is  done,  however,  is  entered  on  the  tag  which 
is  twisted  on  a  wire  on  a  button  of  the  wounded 
man's  coat  and  he  arrives  at  each  station  with 
a  readily  accessible  record  of  what  his  injury 
is,  and  of  the  measures  which  have  already  been 
taken  for  his  relief.  The  urgent  cases,  those 
which  should  receive  prompt  surgical  care,  are 
so  marked  by  a  special  tag.  The  whole  system 
is  along  the  line  of  that  key  word,  "triage" — • 
sorting,  which  as  I  have  stated  is  very  nearly 
the  base  on  which  this  system  of  care  of  the 
wounded  is  built. 

There  were  not  many  seriously  wounded  in 
this  dark  little  cellar  this  evening  and  I  was 
spared  the  always  harrowing  sight  of  the 
mangled  men  who  uncomplainingly  bear  in- 
juries which  seem  beyond  the  control  of  human 
fortitude.  At  certain  posts,  such  as  this, 
where  there  is  apt  to  be  need  for  transport  at 
almost  any  time,  a  motor  ambulance  is  kept 
always  on  duty  throughout  the  twenty-four 
hours.  It  was  to  replace  the  one  then  there 
that  we  had  come  up,  and  the  boy  who  was  my 

207 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

driver  from  Montzeville  was  due  to  wait 
through  the  long  fire  swept  night  until  he  in 
turn  was  relieved,  or  obliged  to  feel  his  way  out 
in  the  Stygian  blackness  with  his  wounded.  As 
I  have  said,  all  these  highways  of  the  front  are 
each  night  subjected  to  searching  shell  fire  in 
order  to  harass  as  much  as  possible  the  service 
which  brings  up  to  the  front  lines  the  stores  of 
food  and  ammunition  and  other  necessities 
which  may  not  be  safely  transported  by  the 
light  of  day.  And  so,  soon  after  I  had  finished 
my  inspection,  the  Surgeon  suggested  with  true 
French  tact,  that  it  would  be  safer  for  his 
wounded  if  I  could  find  it  convenient  to  make  my 
way  back  with  as  little  delay  as  possible  since 
the  hour  for  the  evening  "strafe"  was  approach- 
ing. I  could  see  no  good  reason  why  I  should 
subject  those  already  wounded  men  to  further 
risk,  and  my  mind  reverted  to  the  dark  stains 
on  the  ground  and  the  grotesque  dead  horse  at 
the  bend  of  the  street — the  mute  testimony  of 
what  the  German  hate  had  accomplished  the 
night  before.     I  am  not  at  all  ashamed  to  say 

^08 


TRANSPORTATION 

that  it  was  at  least  one  word  for  the  wounded 
and  one  for  myself,  for  I  have  never  made  any 
pretense  that  I  enjoyed  being  under  shell  fire. 
I  do  not  know  whether  one  does  get  so  accus- 
tomed to  it  that  there  is  no  eerie  creep  at  the 
back  of  your  neck  when  you  hear  the  hoarse 
noise  of  an  oncoming  shell  which  gives  only  the 
advertisement  that  it  is  coming,  but  no  informa- 
tion as  to  its  exact  destination.  I  do  know, 
from  personal  experience,  that  for  me,  at  least, 
there  was  always  a  tense  moment  until  the  burst 
had  demonstrated  that  that  one,  anyhow,  did 
not  bear  my  nmnber.  And  so  I  was  quite 
ready,  having  seen  all  that  I  had  come  for,  to 
take  my  place  in  the  front  seat  of  the  loaded 
ambulance  for  the  return  trip. 

We  crept  slowly  out  through  the  ruined  little 
village  where  the  shells  were  beginning  to  fall 
with  increasing  frequency,  over  the  battered 
road  and  slowly  on  account  of  some  engine 
trouble  up  the  rise;  along  the  parallel  stretch 
of  road  where  the  black  shrapnel  still  burst, 
around    the    corner    and    with    our    backs    to 

^09 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

the  Mort  Homme  and  the  lines  back 
through  the  bleak  blasted  terrain  again 
to  Montzeville,  where  we  found  the  same 
quiet  confident  Poilus  and  where  the  dead 
cannonnier  still  lay,  his  feet  in  their  worn,  hob- 
nailed shoes  more  grotesquely  stiff  than  ever 
and  the  stains  on  the  cloth  over  his  face  turn- 
ing from  bright  red  to  a  dull  brown.  We 
lingered  a  while  in  front  of  the  little  dugout, 
chatting  with  the  Sanitary  personnel,  and  then 
back  again  through  a  throng  of  horse-drawn 
wagons,  of  camions,  of  diminutive  "burros" 
which  with  their  loads  on  their  backs  went  up 
into  the  trenches  themselves ;  through  all  this 
which  made  up  the  nightly  "train  de  ravitaille- 
ment"  to  our  night's  lodging  in  billets  in  a 
sleepy  French  village  where  the  sound  of  the 
ever  pounding  guns  hammered  in  my  ears  like 
a  pulse  of  the  night.  The  next  night,  a  German 
shell  dropped  on  the  place  where  I  had  been 
standing  in  front  of  the  little  dugout,  and 
among  those  who  paid  the  toll  was  one  of  the 
Ambulance  drivers  of  the  section,  a  lad  whom  I 

210 


TRANSPORTATION 

had  laughed  and  talked  with  the  night  before. 
And  a  few  days  later,  back  in  a  town  further  to 
the  rear,  on  the  same  road  a  waiting  convoy 
of  motor  ambulances  came  under  the  fire  of 
high  explosive  from  German  150  mm.  shell  and 
two  more  of  the  Section  paid  the  price  for  their 
service.  The  next  evening,  I  visited  another 
post  of  the  same  character,  further  to  the 
North  where  our  fast  flying  car  had  transported 
us  on  our  inspecting  tour. 

To  reach  this  post  we  went  through 
a  town,  deserted  of  course,  which  the 
Germans  were  vigorously  bombarding:  went 
through  it  on  the  doubtful  advice  of  a 
French  soldier  who  seemed  to  think  that  it 
was  not  advisable  to  do  so  in  face  of  the  shell- 
ing. I  am  sure  he  was  right,  for  when  we  had 
careened  through  the  splintered  streets  to  the 
roar  of  shells  and  the  crash  of  smashed  houses 
and  were  drawing  peaceful  breaths  on  the  other 
side  we  were  informed  by  another  blue  clad 
Poilu  that  our  first  informant  was  by  way  of 
being  an  idiot  and  that  the  town  we  sought  did 

211 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

not  lie  in  that  direction  at  all,  but  that  we 
should  have  taken  the  first  turn  to  the  right  on 

the  other  side  of  S ,  the  cheerful  village 

we  had  just  safely  passed.     And  so  back  again 

through  S and  its  harried  thoroughfares 

and  tottering  houses.  The  second  passing 
seemed  to  me  entirely  gratuitous  and  I  could 
have  cheerfully  argued  with  our  first  mis- 
informant  but  we  took  no  harm  and  found  the 
right  hand  turn  and  the  way  we  were  seeking. 
The  view  as  we  approached  the  little  town,  or 
village,  where  lay  our  Aid  Post  was  interesting. 
It  was  a  relatively  flat  country,  rolling  a  little, 
and  the  German  lines  lay  on  a  long  ridge  in 
plain  view  and  marked  by  the  constant  burst 
of  the  French  shells.  It  was  fascinating  to 
watch  these;  they  danced  up  in  fierce  white  jets 
or  brown  columns,  which  sprung  up  eagerly  at 
first  and  then  lazily  dissipated  as  they  lost  their 
first  fierce  energy  and  drifted  away  on  the 
wings  of  the  summer  wind.  They  appeared 
with  no  apparent  regularity  as  to  lateral  direc- 
tion.     Sometimes    there    were    four    or    more 

212 


TRANSPORTATION 

which  all  flowered  at  one  point,  the  evidence  that 
there  was  directed  fire  "by  battery,"  and  at 
other  places  single  clouds  showed  that  the  bom- 
bardment was  in  slow  order.  The  color  of  the 
bursts  varied  from  the  woolly  clouds  of  the 
shrapnel,  which  hung  in  the  sky,  to  the  sudden 
upspringing  from  the  earth  of  an  inverted 
cone  of  gray  and  black  and  dun  yellow,  where 
the  high  explosive  sent  up  its  cloud  with  the 
riven  earth  and  rock  from  the  point  of  its  im- 
pact. In  between  all  was  drowsy  summer  peace. 
The  fields  were  high  with  grass,  the  summer 
twilight  hush  was  in  the  air  and  the  birds  ranged 
over  the  fields  in  evening  song  before  they 
sought  their  roosts.  Scenes  of  this  sort  are 
incongruous ;  it  is  the  contrast  between  the 
struggle  of  man  in  his  passion  and  the  struggle 
of  nature  to  hold  to  her  own  inflexible  order 
the  things  that  are  hers.  And  finally,  nature 
will  conquer,  for  when  the  "shouting  and  the 
tumult  dies,  the  Captains  and  the  Kings  depart" 
all  this  will  come  back  to  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  designed  and  the  scars  of  man  wiU  heal 

213 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

on  the  landscape  and  remain  as  faint  evidence 
of  spent  passion. 

At  the  outskirts  of  the  village  we  changed 
from  motor  transport  to  walking,  and  I 
noticed  that  our  chauffeur  carefully  turned 
the  car  around,  backed  in  under  the  pre- 
carious shelter  of  a  drunken  looking  wall 
and  left  the  engine  running.  It  is  sometimes  an 
advantage  to  have  a  flying  start  and  not  be 
dependent  on  the  vagaries  of  a  motor  which, 
with  the  perverseness  of  inanimate  objects, 
shows  a  disinclination  to  function.  We  found 
here  the  same  dead  town.  They  do  look  so 
pitifully  dead,  these  abandoned  French  villages 
of  the  front  lines.  Everything  in  them  cries 
out  of  the  homely  life  which  has  been  squeezed 
out  of  them.  Here,  the  sign  says,  is  a  restau- 
rant— the  only  tangible  evidence  of  it  the 
blackened  wall  with  the  faded  letters  of  the 
sign.  There,  the  opened  front  of  some  one's 
house  showing  splintered  furnishings  and  tat- 
tered curtains  which  wait  the  return  of  the  fam- 

214 


TRANSPORTATION 

ily  which  may  be  in  exile  or  gone  beyond  the 
possibility  of  any  coming  back. 

The  streets  are  there  but  they  are  not  streets, 
just  echoing  canons  between  gaunt  skeletons 
of  dwellings  and  littered  with  debris,  battered 
belongings  and  shattered  masonry  and  brick. 
It  all  seems  dreary  and  dead  and  unaccountably 
still.  One  waits  with  expectant  ear  for  the  hum 
of  human  life,  the  sound  of  talk  and  laughter, 
the  voices  of  the  children  at  their  evening  games 
and  the  familiar  human  rustle  of  the  homely 
peasant  world  before  it  puts  itself  to  bed.  Of 
course  you  know  that  it  is  not,  and  cannot  be 
there,  but  it  seems  as  though  it  ought  to  be  and 
its  absence  makes  the  stillness  more  marked  in 
this  quiet  time  of  the  evening  hush.  And  then 
you  realize  that  there  is  no  evening  hush ;  that 
you  are  conjuring  up  in  the  eye  of  your  mind 
what  ought  to  be  in  your  own  place,  in  the 
quiet  hills  of  New  England,  the  fastnesses  of 
the  Appalachians  or  on  the  wind  swept  prairies 
— ^wherever  it  is  that  memory  places  these 
scenes.     The  stillness  is   a  mental  conception 

215 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

and  the  physical  senses  are  keenly  aware  of  the 
life  which  is  here, — the  life  which  exists  to  take 
life.  With  the  angry  crash  of  shells,  the  noise 
of  their  oncoming,  of  their  passing,  the  noise  of 
breaking  houses  and  falling  ruins,  the  illusion 
of  quiet  passes  and  the  interest  quickly  centers 
again  in  the  ego  and  what  is  to  happen  to  it. 
We  made  our  entry  here  to  the  accompaniment 
of  a  very  lively  evening  bombardment.  Mostly 
six-inch  shells  which  with  their  high  explosive 
content  shake  not  only  your  mental  self  in  their 
burst  but  by  their  physical  energy,  rack  and 
rock  your  very  body  itself  in  the  violence  of 
their  explosion.  They  were  dropping  in  all 
quarters  of  the  village  and  it  seemed  to  me  dur- 
ing our  brief  quest  of  the  aid  post  and  the 
French  officer  in  command  of  the  village  that 
their  frequency  increased.  One  broke  in  the 
street  about  a  square  ahead  of  us  and  shook 
down  two  uncertain  houses  in  a  golden  haze  of 
broken  brick  and  dust  and  we  could  hear  them 
falling  in  the  streets  to  our  right  and  left  as 
we  approached  the  partially  destroyed  building 

216 


TRANSPORTATION 

which  sheltered  the  Headquarters  of  the  Com- 
mandant and  served  also  as  the  station  for  the 
first  aid  post  and  the  waiting  ambulance.  We 
found  a  French  soldier  on  guard  in  the  court- 
yard of  this  building  and  in  response  to  our 
inquiries  were  told  that  the  French  Major  in 
command  of  the  Sector  was  dining  in  the  cellar 
with  the  Ambulance  driver,  the  American  lad 
who  was  on  duty  at  this  time  in  this  harried 
village.  We  expressed  a  desire  to  see  the  Amer- 
ican and  begged  that  the  Major  should  not  in- 
terrupt his  evening  meal  on  our  account.  In 
answer  to  our  message,  taken  by  the  steel 
helmeted  orderly,  both  the  Ambulance  boy  and 
the  Major  emerged  from  the  dark  doorway  of 
the  cellar,  the  latter  wiping  from  his  long  gray 
mustaches  what  I  am  sure  must  have  been  per- 
fectly good,  "Pot  au  feu"  or  "Petite  Marmite." 
One  of  the  gravest  crimes  you  can  commit  is  to 
interrupt  a  French  soldier  at  his  meal  and  I 
was  instantly  contrite  and  apologetic.  I  was 
assured  that  it  made  not  the  slightest  differ- 
ence ;  that  he  had  finished ;  that  he  was  glad  to 

217 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

be  interrupted ;  that  it  would  be  a  pleasure  if 
I  would  come  and  conclude  the  very  poor  repast 
with  him.  I  regretted  that  I  had  already 
supped  and  assured  him  that  I  had  come  only 
to  see  the  conditions  under  which  the  Ambulance 
Service  worked  at  his  post.  He  assured  me  of 
the  satisfactory  character  of  the  service  af- 
forded, indicated  the  waiting  motor  car  in  the 
corner  of  the  court,  and  then  asked  me,  with  an 
earnest  and  thoughtful  air,  if  I  had  happened 
to  notice  as  I  came  into  the  village  that  "there 
was  of  a  bombardment  there  this  evening?" 
Just  then  a  shell  exploded  across  the  street 
and  cast  bits  of  flotsam  and  jetsam  over  the 
high  wall  into  the  court,  and  rather  than  appear 
too  stupid,  I  acknowledged  that  I  had  had  a 
Tery  grave  suspicion  that  such  was  the  case 
during  my  short  walk  through  his  altogether 
charming  village.  He  became  more  animated 
and  told  me  that  he  was  each  evening  the  recipi- 
ent of  attentions  of  this  kind  but  that  this 
evening  seemed  to  be  the  occasion  'of  an  extra 

218 


TRANSPORTATION 

effort  for  some  reason,  or  as  he  expressed  it 
"Ce  soir  le  Boche  est  tres,  tres  mechant.'* 
What  the  Boche  was  angry  about  he  did  not 
state.  Continuing,  he  said  that  of  course  he 
felt  honored  by  a  visit  from  me,  but  that  this 
was  no  place  for  me  at  present;  that  he  was 
particularly  glad  to  see  me  as  I  was  the  first 
American  Officer  who  had  so  far  visited  him 
but  did  I  have  a  motor  car  near ;  that  I  was  not 
only  the  first  American  Officer  who  had  visited 
him,  but  the  first  one  he  had  seen,  but  that  in 
view  of  existent  conditions,  much  as  it  distressed 
his  sense  of  politeness  he  was  compelled  to  sug- 
gest that  I  leave  him  before  my  blood  might  be 
on  his  head.  That  the  shelling  was  rapidly 
growing  more  intense  and  that  frankly,  it  was 
no  place  for  one  who  did  not  have  to  be  there. 
I  recognized,  from  the  evidence  of  my  own 
senses,  that  there  was  a  measure  of  truth  in 
what  he  said  and  wishing  him  good  luck  and 
hoping  some  day  for  a  more  satisfactory  meet- 
ing we  left  him  in  his  desolate,  shell  infested 

219 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

little  village  and  went  back  through  the  streets 
which  shook  with  the  quickened  roar  of  high 
explosive  to  where  the  good  little  motor  was 
still  turning,  and  in  it  away  through  the  soft 
summer  night  with  our  backs  to  death  and 
carnage. 

Strange  as  the  coincidence  is,  at  this  same 
village,  in  the  same  courtyard,  the  waiting  Am- 
bulance driver  was  killed  on  the  following  even- 
ing by  one  of  the  shells  of  the  "evening  hate." 
In  addition  to  duty  of  the  kind  described,  there 
is  much  more  which  has  to  be  accomplished  by 
these  Sections.  It  would  not  be  practicable  to 
split  up  the  motors  of  the  sections,  assigning 
them  to  individual  stations ;  this  is  done  only 
in  places  where  there  is  unusual  activity;  in 
the  others,  except  in  time  of  attack,  the  evacua- 
tion of  the  wounded  is  accomplished  according 
to  schedule  by  cars  assigned  to  the  duty  and 
which  make  daily  fixed  runs  over  an  established 
route.  These  "tournee"  cars  are  due  at  cer- 
tain of  the  collecting  points  at  a  certain  time 
each  day  and  such  cases  as  can  without  preju- 

220 


TRANSPORTATION 

dice  to  their  condition  wait  for  the  daily  col- 
lection, are  held  for  it.  In  the  event  of  urgent 
necessity,  a  telephone  call  is  sent  in  and  a  spe- 
cial run  is  made. 


CHAPTER  VI 


FRONT  LINES 


To  any  one  making  inquiry  in  regard  to  con- 
ditions during  the  time  of  war,  it  is  natural 
that  the  thing  which  should  have  the  strongest 
personal  appeal  is  just  what  exists  at  the  actual 
point  of  conflict ;  where  the  two  forces  come  to- 
gether. From  the  standpoint  of  the  medical 
officer,  this  point,  while  important  in  relation 
to  immediate  treatment,  is  only  a  step  in  the 
complicated  scheme  which  stretches  back  into 
the  interior  and  leads  to  the  ultimate  restora- 
tion of  the  wounded  man  to  a  state  of  health 
sufficient  to  make  him  a  possible  effective  again 
on  the  firing  line. 

A  trench  is  exactly  what  the  word  indicates. 
It  is  a  ditch  dug  in  the  ground  to  a  depth  gov- 
erned by  the  nature  of  the  soil  and  may  range 
from  a  few  feet  to  six,  seven,  or  eight.     The 

%%% 


FRONT  LINES 

side  towards  the  enemy,  the  "parapet,"  is  built 
up  with  sandbags.  The  rear  slope  is  called  the 
"parados."  Along  the  line  of  these  first 
trenches  many  casualties  of  course  occur,  not 
only  from  direct  infantry  assault,  but  from  the 
effect  of  artillery  fire,  and  it  is  necessary  that 
provision  be  made  by  the  medical  corps  for  the 
care  of  men  who  are  wounded  during  attacks 
of  any  kind.  The  first  station  of  the  medical 
corps  for  the  care  of  wounded  is  the  "refuge 
for  wounded."  This  varies  in  accordance  with 
the  possibility  of  construction  from  a  hole  in 
the  trench  wall  to  a  well  constructed  and  thor- 
oughly roofed  dugout,  manned  by  a  certain 
number  of  sanitary  corps  personnel  and  pre- 
sided over  by  a  medical  officer  and  affording 
fairly  thorough  treatment,  as  far  as  first  aid 
goes,  for  any  wounded  who  may  be  brought  to 
it. 

The  wounded  from  the  trenches  are  brought 
into  these  refuges,  if  unable  to  walk,  by  the  regi- 
mental litter  bearers  and  held  there  until  evacu- 
ation is  possible  to  the  first  aid  post,  which  is 

223 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

farther  in  the  rear.  The  first  aid  post  is  situ- 
ated farther  behind  the  lines  at  the  beginning  of 
the  "boyau."  A  "boyau"  is  the  communica- 
tion trench  which  goes  from  the  relatively-safe 
zone  up  to  the  first  line  trenches  and  derives 
its  name  from  its  similarity  to  the  exact  mean- 
ing of  the  word  in  French.  "Boyau"  means  in 
French,  an  intestine,  and  the  word  was  bor- 
rowed and  applied  to  these  approaches  on 
account  of  the  tortuous  character  of  their  con- 
struction, which  was  necessary  to  avoid  enfilad- 
ing shell-fire.  The  frequency  of  the  refuges  for 
wounded  and  the  first  aid  stations  is  governed 
largely  by  the  character  of  the  terrain  in  which 
the  operations  take  place.  In  one  sector  which 
I  visited  in  the  defenses  near  Verdun,  on  a 
front  of  some  three  miles,  there  were  only  two 
of  the  communication  trenches,  "boyaus,"  and 
I  think  only  two  refuges  for  wounded.  The 
consequence  was  that  all  wounded  in  the  trench 
on  this  front  had  to  be  brought  to  one  extrem- 
ity or  the  other  and  from  there  carried  back  by 
litter  to  the  first  aid  station  at  the  end  of  the 

224i 


FRONT  LINES 

two  converging  boyaus.  Work  at  the  refuge 
for  wounded  is  necessarily  of  a  very  sketchy 
character ;  hemorrhages  stopped,  first  aid  dress- 
ings applied,  and  perhaps  a  stimulant  given, 
but  no  attempt  at  any  formal  surgical  care. 
This  is  deferred  until  the  man  is  carried  to  the 
first  aid  post  already  referred  to,  and  even  here 
nothing  of  any  importance  is  attempted;  only 
that  which  is  absolutely  necessary  to  insure  his 
safe  transit  to  one  of  the  more  permanent  or- 
ganizations in  the  rear. 

As  typical  of  the  circumstances  attending 
this  service,  I  quote  the  following  account  of  a 
trip  which  I  made  to  inspect  this  class  of  work 
in  a  French  sector  in  a  region  in  France,  which, 
due  to  military  necessity,  must  naturally  be 
without  a  name. 

I  went  by  motor  with  the  officer  accredited 
to  me  as  my  guide  and  counselor  to  the  head- 
quarters of  the  General  commanding  the  divi- 
sion, and  there  we  picked  up  the  division  sur- 
geon who  had  the  direction  of  the  sanitary  work 
in  the  sector.     It  was  a  hilly  country,  but,  in 

SS5 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

view  of  military  necessity,  the  former  trails  in 
the  region  had  been  enlarged  and  completed 
into  military  roads  which  would  have  been  most 
admirable  in  any  section  of  our  own  country. 
We  went  by  motor,  constantly  up  hill.  At 
many  places  high  brush  fences  had  been  built  to 
hide  ("camouflage")  the  road  from  German 
observation.  After  half  an  hour  we  halted  in 
front  of  the  Ambulance,*  one  of  the  front  line 
units  at  the  end  of  wheel  transportation,  except 
for  Ford  ambulances,  which  went  half  a  mile 
further.  We  walked  on  through  mud  and  mist 
down  hiU  and  up ;  over  stones  and  pine  needles 
until  we  reached  the  Poste  de  Secour,  or  first 
aid  station,  at  the  beginning  of  the  approach 
trench  which  led  to  the  front.  After  inspecting 
this,  we  stepped  into  the  boyau  and  went  on  to 
the  front  line  trenches.  This  boyau  was  a 
trench  just  wide  enough  for  us  to  walk  in  and 
zig-zagged,  so  that  no  great  length  of  it  could 
be  raked  by  shell  explosions.     Even  in  flat  coun- 

*  In  continental  parlance,  an  "Ambulance"   is  not  a  ve- 
hicle for  the  transport  of  wounded,  but  any  wio6iZe  hospital. 

226 


FRONT  LINES 

try  such  walking  is  not  very  good,  and  here  it 
was  up  hill  all  the  way  and  muddy  and  rocky, 
and  I  slipped  and  shd  and  caromed  from  one 
sticky  earth  wall  to  another  and  sweated  until 
I  was  like  Mr.  Mantalini,  a  "demmed  cold, 
moist,  unpleasant  body."  The  blessed  thing 
ramified  and  branched  and  right-angled  almost 
as  much  as  a  city.  I  should  have  been  lost  with- 
out a  guide. 

In  due  time  we  came  to  the  company 
shelter  for  the  wounded,  which  opened  directly 
into  the  boyau  on  one  side  and  on  the  other 
toward  the  first  line  trenches  which  were  less 
than  40  feet  away.  The  shelter  was  the  usual 
type,  built  into  the  side  of  the  hill  and  heavily 
roofed  with  rock  and  dirt  and  stones.  All  the 
men  in  these  trenches  lived  in  them  and  during 
shell-fire  only  six  or  eight  lookouts  were  actu- 
ally exposed  in  the  open.  There  was  some 
desultory  bombardment  at  this  time,  and  Ger- 
man shells  were  dropping  at  various  places 
along  the  front.  One  of  the  French  hospital 
corps  men  smiled  cheerfully  at  me  and  made  a 

227 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

remark  in  French,  which  for  a  few  minutes  puz- 
zled me.  After  thinking  it  over,  I  realized  the 
fact  that  he  was  not  only  talking  a  foreign 
language,  but  that  he  stuttered  while  he  talked 
it  and  that  the  idea  that  he  wished  to  convey 
was  that  to-day  the  German  shells  seemed  to  be 
altogether  rotten  ("p-p-p-pourris") — referring 
to  the  fact  that  several  in  our  vicinity  had  not 
exploded. 

We  were  met  here  by  the  Captain  in  com- 
mand of  the  sector  and  went  out  with  him  to 
make  the  round  of  the  front  trenches,  which 
were  only  four  minutes  from  the  shelter.  He 
explained  to  us  that  the  closest  point  in  his  line 
was  only  20  meters  from  the  German  trenches 
and  asked  that  we  speak  softly,  as  they  were 
often  irritable.  We  made  our  way  through  300 
yards  or  so,  which  was  his  front,  and  it  was  very 
real  and  grim  and  interesting;  the  still  men 
opposite  their  loopholes,  the  supply  of  car- 
tridges loose  in  boxes,  the  hand  grenades  laid 
in  readiness  and  the  platforms  built  to  throw 
them  from.     I  was  allowed  to  look  through  a 

228 


FRONT  LINES 

slit  in  the  steel  plate,  but  for  only  a  moment  on 
penalty  of  having  some  wary  "boche"  shoot  me 
in  the  eye.  I  saw  a  waste  of  jagged  barbed 
wire  and  torn  earth  and  some  60  feet  away  a 
line  of  raw  earth  which  marked  the  beginning 
of  militant  Germany  and  behind  which,  I  sup- 
pose, watchful  eyes  were  also  peering. 

It  smelled  of  dead  men  here;  there  was  one 
that  I  could  see  hanging  in  the  barbed  wire  just 
outside,  who  seemed  to  be  a  cause  of  particular 
annoyance  to  the  French  inhabitants  of  the 
trench.  He  was  provokingly  near,  but  due 
to  the  proximity  of  the  lines  they  were  unable 
to  get  out  to  disentangle  him  and  place  him  be- 
low ground  where  he  would  be  less  offensive. 
The  medical  man  in  the  sector  explained  to  me 
very  vivaciously  that  they  had  -tried  to  render 
him  less  obnoxious  by  throwing  lime  at  him,  by 
squirting  petroleum  and  crude  oil,  and  various 
other  ways,  but  that  he  was  always  in  evidence 
when  the  wind  was  in  the  direction  in  which  it 
was  that  day.  There  were  many  others  further 
out,  and,  personally,  I  could  see  no  particular 

29,9 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

reason  to  be  so  disturbed  about  one  individual. 
At  one  end  of  the  trench  an  automobile  horn  of 
the  Klaxon  type,  I  think,  was  fastened,  and 
when  that  squawked  it  was  better  to  put  on  your 
mask,  for  it  meant  that  the  deadly  gray,  green 
gas  was  coming.  Aside  from  the  occasional  ex- 
plosions of  the  German  shells,  it  was  very  still, 
the  stillness  of  the  high  places  accentuated  by 
the  tension  of  ever  waiting  for  the  scream  of 
shells  and  the  scrambling  rush  of  an  infantry  at- 
tack. It  seemed  like  Sunday :  the  Sunday  hush. 
Of  course  there  were  no  guns,  cannon,  up  there ; 
it  was  too  close  for  that.  They  were  back  in 
the  valley  and  tossed  their  noisy,  steel  death 
over  the  ranges  and  into  the  trench  under  the 
guidance  of  telephone  direction. 

The  Captain  spread  out  his  map  and  showed 
us  where  the  lines  ran.  We  were  then  over  at 
one  end  of  the  trenches,  and  I  left  my  little 
French  doctor  friend  and  went  back  with  the 
Captain  to  his  mess  house,  a  little  wooden  shack 
just  behind  the  lines,  where  he  promised  me  a 
cup  of  tea.     I  was  alone  with  the  Captain,  the 

230 


FRONT  LINES 

others  lagging  behind.  Just  as  the  tea  was 
about  to  be  served,  before  we  had  sat  down, 
there  was  a  whining  scream,  which  ended  in  a 
jarring  explosion,  just  outside.  On  the  Cap- 
tain's orders,  we  immediately  "beat  it"  for  his 
dugout,  which  was  not  far  away  but  far  enough 
to  allow  two  more  shells  to  explode  before  we 
reached  it.  I  did  not  know  where  the  others 
had  gone :  that  was  their  business. 

At  the  same  time  that  we  were  in  the  front 
trench  an  inspection  had  been  made  by  a  party 
of  French  Engineer  Officers,  and  it  is  probable 
that  the  Germans,  hearing  an  undue  amount  of 
conversation  and  noise  in  the  French  trench, 
had  concluded  that  it  would  be  well  to  shell  it. 
For  an  hour  and  a  half  we  sat  there  and  listened 
to  things  blow  up  outside.  The  Captain's  dug- 
out was  small,  unpretentious  and  simple,  but  it 
seemed  very  comfortable.  It  had  a  bunk  and 
table,  one  chair,  and  a  small  cooking  stove.  He 
cheered  me  by  telling  me  that  if  one  of  the  larger 
shells  dropped  on  the  dugout,  we  should  all 
disappear  in  fragments,  as  it  was  only  about 

231 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

half  completed  and  by  no  means   shell-proof. 

It  did  not  sound  good  to  me,  but  the  whole 
thing  was  so  interesting  that  I  did  not  have 
much  time  to  worry.  They  were  firing  77  m.m. 
and  150  m.m.  shells  all  loaded  with  high  explo- 
sive, and  the  racket  was  tremendous.  The  explo- 
sions were  very  sharp  and  shook  and  jarred 
the  ground,  especially  those  which  struck  in  our 
immediate  vicinity,  and  there  were  quite  a  num- 
ber of  these.  Pieces  rattled  against  the  dugout, 
and  the  air  was  filled  with  the  whine  of  falling 
shell  fragments. 

They  also  threw  bombs  ("minenwerfer"), 
which  added  to  the  general  racket,  and  when  the 
French  machine  guns  opened  up  to  check  an 
infantry  attack  which  the  Germans  started,  it 
sounded  like  bedlam  broken  loose.  In  addition 
to  this,  they  also  gave  us  the  benefit  of  occa- 
sional showers  of  hand  grenades. 

During  the  hour  and  a  half  that  this  demon- 
stration lasted,  they  dropped  forty-eight  150 
m.m.  and  forty  77  m.m.  shells  on  this  small 
comer  of  the  French  lines. 

232 


FRONT  LINES 

To  make  it  additionally  interesting  to  me, 
the  Captain  sat  on  one  end  of  his  bunk  with  his 
telephone  at  his  ear  and  I  on  the  other  end  of 
the  bunk.  From  his  end  of  the  conversation  I 
could  tell  what  was  happening  and  what  was 
going  to  happen.  I  understood  when  "P-3" 
(a  designation  of  a  part  of  his  lines)  called  him 
that  P-3  reported  a  German  infantry  attack 
starting  opposite  that  position,  and  I  heard 
the  order  go  to  P-3  to  open  up  with  the  machine 
guns,  and  sure  enough,  in  a  few  seconds  we 
heard  the  "put-put-put" — the  "drumming  of 
the  guns."  Fortunately  for  my  peace  of  mind, 
that  infantry  attack  died  then  and  there ;  they 
got  a  very  short  distance  beyond  the  German 
trenches. 

"P-2'*  complained  that  the  Boches  were 
knocking  his  trench  to  pieces  by  their  artillery 
fire.  All  right,  we  would  fix  that,  so  we  tele- 
phoned to  a  battery  back  in  the  valley  and  in  a 
few  moments  big  French  shells  commenced  to 
scream  over  our  heads  on  their  way  to  Deutsch- 
land.     It  must  have  helped,  for  P-2  called  up 

233 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

soon    after   and    said   that   the   Germans   had 
stopped  shelling  him. 

"La  Coulee"  we  could  not  get  at  all.  Tried 
several  times  and  finally  gave  up  in  disgust :  it 
was  a  case  of  "Ligne  Coupee,"  which  is  not  the 
familiar  "line's  busy"  of  peaceful  hours  but 
meant  that  a  German  shell  had  stepped  on  the 
wire.  It  was  like  being  in  a  prompter's  box 
behind  the  scenes,  and  the  whole  thing  was  too 
fascinatingly  interesting  to  allow  much  time 
for  being  frightened.  In  the  intervals  between 
telephone  calls  we  chatted  of  common-place 
things,  and  I  made  bad  jokes  in  bad  French  to 
show  that  the  American  Army  was  a  good 
sport.  The  Captain  passed  around  some  candy 
and  cake  which  had  come  up  to  him  for  his 
Saint's  Day,  and  I  furnished  some  cigars,  and 
we  munched  and  smoked  and  listened  to  the 
telephone  and  the  racket  outside,  and  the  good 
little  stove  dried  me  out  and  I  was  really  quite 
contented.  You  see,  if  one  came  over  here  and 
never  heard  shells  burst  or  bullets  whine,  he 
could  not  expect  to  excite  much  interest  on  his 

234 


FRONT  LINES 

return  to  his  own  country.  I  felt  that  I  was 
really  acquiring  a  noisy  education  which  might 
eventually  lead  to  a  wartime  diploma. 

At  the  end  of  an  hour  and  a  half  the  whole 
thing  stopped.  It  was  carried  out  with  Ger- 
man method  in  three  periods  of  a  half  hour 
each,  with  an  interval  of  some  minutes  between 
each  half  hour's  shelling,  evidently  with  the 
intention  of  drawing  the  French  troops  into 
the  trenches  again  where  they  would  be  sub- 
jected to  further  shell  fire  in  the  open.  The 
wounded  from  this  attack  were  not  many ;  the 
exact  number  I  do  not  recollect,  but  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  majority  of  the  troops  were  with- 
drawn to  shelters  and  only  the  necessary  num- 
ber of  lookouts  left  to  give  warning  of  the 
infantry  attack,  the  casualties  were  not  nearly 
so  heavy  as  they  would  have  been  under  other 
circumstances. 

There  was,  to  me,  a  very  sad  ending  to  this 
experience.  I  have  spoken  of  the  little  French 
doctor  who  was  explaining  to  me  his  arrange- 
ment in  his  shelter  for  the  wounded  and  the 

235 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

manner  in  which  he  cared  for  his  injured  sol- 
diers. I  stated  that  I  left  him  in  the  trench 
just  as  I  went  down  with  the  Captain  for  the 
cup  of  tea,  which  I  never  got,  in  his  mess  house. 
The  second  or  third  shell  which  dropped  there 
fell  on  this  line  of  the  trenches  and  one  of  them 
squarely  on  the  little  doctor. 

All  that  was  left  was  shattered  sand  bags,  a 
hole  in  the  parapet  and  some  red  splotches  and 
fragments  of  clothes  on  the  parados.  My  little 
medical  friend  disappeared  then  and  there  as 
completely  as  though  he  had  been  translated 
like  Elijah  in  his  chariot.  A  six-inch  shell 
loaded  with  high  explosive  (which  means  glori- 
fied dynamite)  leaves  little  trace  of  anything 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  its  explosion. 

In  mountain  country  such  as  that  described 
above,  the  shelters  for  the  wounded  are  con- 
structed with  a  view  to  taking  advantage,  so 
far  as  possible,  of  the  natural  protection  af- 
forded by  the  ground.  Instead  of  being  en- 
tirely built  up  they  are  sunk  into  the  side  of  the 
hill,  much  as  one  would  start  the  tunnel  of  a 

236 


FRONT  LINES 

mine.  After  a  little  distance,  the  cover  of  the 
ground  overhead  gives  adequate  shelter  from 
shell  bursts  and  up  to  that  point  this  is  pro- 
vided by  building  up  with  tree  trunks,  earth  and 
rocks.  The  extent  of  this  covering  is  about 
fifteen  or  eighteen  feet  and  this  is  sufficient  to 
take  care  of  the  smaller  and  medium  caliber 
shells ;  for  those  of  from  220  m.m.  up,  there  is 
hardly  any  man-made  shelter  which  is  sufficient 
to  afford  immunity.  These  underground  bur- 
rows vary  in  dimensions  from  what  is  in  effect 
a  straight  rabbit  burrow  up  to  elaborate  sys- 
tems of  underground  habitations  which  include 
several  underground  rooms,  operating  room, 
ward,  waiting  rooms  and  quarters  for  the 
detachment  which  mans  them.  I  saw  one  such 
in  a  first  line  Ambulance  which  was  some  thirty 
feet  under  ground  and  was  in  reality  an  exceed- 
ingly well  arranged  little  hospital.  It  was 
lighted  by  electricity,  and  could  care  for  some 
thirty  patients  at  a  time.  Construction  of 
this  type  is  the  outgrowth  of  course  of  the  fixed 
front    fighting,    of   the    trench    warfare   where 

237 


D 


Rej-u.g< 


t 


"a" 


V 


Front  Line  Shelter 
238 


n 


Front  Line  Shelter 


239 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

there  is  no  decided  fluctuation  in  the  advance 
or  retreat  of  the  contending  forces. 

The  continuance  of  this  kind  of  warfare  has 
given  ample  opportunity  to  perfect  the  style 
of  these  shelters  and  to-day  they  are  built  in 
accordance  with  pretty  definite  rules.  With 
the  smaller  shelters,  it  is  of  course  an  object 
to  take  advantage  of  all  available  space.  In 
view  of  this,  the  entrance  and  exit  have  a  definite 
arrangement  as  shown  in  the  accompanying 
diagrams.  In  "a"  the  entrance  is  not  properly 
placed,  for  in  order  to  come  in  and  out  of  the 
dugout  it  is  necessary  for  the  wounded  to 
traverse  the  entire  length  of  the  shelter,  thereby 
interfering  with  work.  In  "b"  the  wounded 
pass  across  one  end  of  the  dugout  and  do  not 
take  up  needed  space.  Many  of  the  wounded 
who  come  to  the  station  do  not  need  any- 
thing more  than  an  inspection  to  verify 
the  fact  that  their  dressings  are  prop- 
erly applied  and  that  they  are  tagged, 
and  a  man  stationed  at  the  entrance  in 
"b"  can  carry  on  this  work  without  the  neces- 

240 


FRONT  LINES 

sity  for  men  passing  through  the  entire  length 
of  the  shelter.  Another  advantage  of  this 
arrangement  is  that  there  is  a  smaller  target 
afforded  for  hostile  shell  fire  since  the  narrow 
dimension  of  the  dugout  is  presented  to  the 
enemy.  Finally,  this  arrangement  gives  the 
two  entrances  which  have  been  shown  to  be  a 
necessary  precaution  in  the  event  that  one  be 
closed  by  a  shell  explosion. 

The  construction  of  shelters  of  this  type 
means  a  great  deal  of  labor,  for  the  excavation 
in  itself  is  no  mean  j  ob  and  oftentimes  it  means 
work  in  rocky  ground  which  magnifies  the  task. 
In  some  of  the  shelters  of  this  style  which  I  saw, 
"camouflage"  had  been  cleverly  employed.  One 
I  remember  particularly  which  was  on  a  hill 
side  in  plain  view  of  the  German  lines.  It  was 
in  a  forest  and  in  the  immediate  vicinity  most 
of  the  trees  had  been  felled  for  purposes  of 
construction.  The  clever  French  overcame  this 
difficulty  by  painting  and  setting  up  large  can- 
vas screens  like  a  woods  scene  on  the  back  drop 
in  a  theater  which  effectually  hid  the  Poste  de 

241 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

Secour  from  prying  enemy  eyes — and  shells. 
The  Medical  Inspector  with  whom  I  visited  this 
station  told  me  that  it  was  commonly  known  as 
*'The  Theater"  and  seemed  amused  when  I  told 
him  that  under  those  circumstances  I  should 
be  very  glad  to  meet  some  of  the  chorus. 

Much  has  been  written  of  "camouflage"  and 
many  jokes  perpetrated  at  its  expense,  but  I 
can  assure  any  of  the  jokers  that  it  is  a  very 
comforting  sensation  to  know  that  you  are 
traversing  in  comparative  safety  a  road  or  path 
which  without  it  would  probably  be  an  inferno 
of  shrapnel  and  high  explosive.  I  have  only 
the  most  kindly  and  respectful  attitude  for  that 
overworked  word  and  all  that  it  really  means  in 
the  grim  work  of  war. 

Shelters  of  the  type  described  and  illustrated 
are  of  course  possible  only  where  the  terrain 
lends  itself  to  their  construction :  in  hilly  coun- 
try. They  are  probably  the  most  satisfactory 
kind  since  by  burrowing  into  the  hillside  it  is 
possible  in  a  short  distance  to  put  enough  earth 
over   your   head    to    protect    you    against    the 

242 


FRONT  LINES 

effect  of  the  average  shell  burst.  Since  this  is 
not  always  possible,  the  character  of  the  Poste 
de  Secour  varies  according  to  the  country  in 
which  it  exists. 

In  flat  country  such  as  that  of  the  Somme 
or  farther  north,  they  often  consist  of  a  wide 
ditch  heavily  roofed  with  sand  bags ;  not  so 
secure  as  the  hillside  type,  but  affording  the 
best  protection  under  the  circumstances.  I 
have  seen  them  established  in  the  cellars  of  un- 
destroyed  buildings  and  in  cellars  which  still 
existed  under  a  pile  of  bricks  and  masonry,  all 
that  was  left  of  a  shell  torn  house.  Some  of 
them  I  have  seen  located  in  churches  where  the 
surgeons  carried  on  their  work  near  the  altar 
and  in  the  shadow  of  the  cross.  This  did  not 
seem  inappropriate  somehow,  for  as  Christ 
strove  to  heal  the  wounds  of  the  soul,  so  these 
weary  French  Medical  men  were  trying  to 
patch  the  bodily  wounds  in  this  His  house;  the 
house  of  the  Great  Physician.  Still  others  I 
have  seen  which  were  nothing  more  than  a 
sheltering  angle  of  standing  wall  and  battered 

243 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

debris;  scant  protection  save  from  the  flying 
steel  fragments  and  the  vicious  whip  of  bullets. 
Wherever  they  are  located  and  however  they 
are  made  they  are  a  tacit  tribute  to  the  recogni- 
tion that  in  the  warfare  of  to-day  the  essential 
thing  for  the  welfare  of  the  soldier  is  prompt 
treatment;  as  prompt  as  possible.  Views  have 
changed  in  this  respect  since  August,  1914. 
Before  that  time  it  was  generally  conceded  that 
the  majority  of  the  serious  surgical  work  should 
be  done  at  some  distance  from  the  fighting  front, 
in  the  Zone  of  the  Interior.  Experience  proved 
that  this  was  wrong,  and  that  a  man's  chances 
for  recovery  decreased,  to  speak  in  terms  of 
mathematics,  in  direct  relation  to  the  time  which 
elapsed  before  he  went  on  the  table  for  opera- 
tion. I  do  not  intend  to  give  the  impression 
that  major  operations  are  attempted  in  the 
first  line  Sanitary  Units.  That  of  course  is  out 
of  the  question,  but  even  so,  the  treatment  that 
is  accorded  men  at  these  places  is  much 
better  and  more  thorough  now  than  formerly, 
and  the  whole  process  is  shoved  up  from  the 

S44 


FRONT  LINES 

rear  lines  so  that  the  wounded  receive  extended 
care  now  at  a  point  where  formerly  little  was 
done  for  them. 

I  think  it  cannot  be  difficult  to  understand 
that  this  front  line  work  is  hard  work  for  the 
Medical  personnel  which  carries  it  out.  The 
Doctors  who  do  it  are  really  entitled  to  a 
different  classification  than  that  of  "non-com- 
batant." If  "non-combatant"  means  just  a 
man  who  does  not  fight,  they  fall  within  the 
category.  But  when  you  come  to  consider  that 
they  bear  in  common  with  their  brothers  of  the 
line  all  the  danger  of  these  advanced  positions ; 
that  they  are  subject  to  the  same  intense  bom- 
bardment, the  same  shock  of  assault,  of  gas  and 
all  the  nerve  wracking  terrors  of  life  in  the 
trenches,  it  seems  as  though  there  ought  to  be 
at  least  a  brevet  title  which  would  differentiate 
between  the  accepted  meaning  of  the  term  and 
the  actuality  in  these  circumstances.  The  wast- 
age of  Sanitary  personnel  has  been  high  in  the 
present  war  and,  aside  from  my  little  Doctor 
who  died  a  spattered  mass  on  the  wall  of  the 

/ 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

parados,  blown  out  of  existence  by  German 
high  explosive,  there  may  have  been  many 
others  who  have  found  the  end  of  the  great 
adventure  while  bringing  aid  and  comfort  to 
their  stricken  comrades.  The  Croix  de  Guerre 
and  the  Gold  wound  chevron  on  the  right  arm 
is  not  uncommon  on  the  uniform  of  the  man  who 
carries  the  insignia  of  the  Sanitary  Service. 

I  would  not  have  it  understood  that  there  is 
any  unusual  courage  among  the  men  of  the 
Medical  Profession  who  go  to  war,  but  to  cor- 
rect an  impression  more  or  less  current  that 
their  job  lies  well  to  the  rear,  safe  from  the 
carnage  of  the  combatant  forces. 

I  think  that  there  is  one  thought  which  oc- 
curs to  every  man  in  contemplation  of  entrance 
into  battle:  whether  he  is  nervously  waiting  his 
first  experience  under  actual  conditions,  or 
whether  he  is  simply  going  through  a  period 
of  self  analysis  safe  in  his  own  home,  with  no 
immediate  prospect  of  exposure  to  the  danger 
of  hostile  fire. 

That  is,  "What  would  I  do  the  first  time  I 

U6 


FRONT  LINES 

was  under  fire?  Would  I  run  away?  Would 
I  be  afraid?"  It  is  I  think  a  perfectly  natural 
curiosity,  and  one  that  must  occur  to  every 
one  in  his  soul  analysis.  The  answer  to  part 
of  it  at  least,  is  in  the  record  of  armies  since 
the  beginning  of  time,  for  armies  as  a  whole 
do  not  run  away,  and  according  to  the  law  of 
averages  the  normal  man  is  not  in  that  respect  a 
coward.  It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  any 
man  in  peril  of  his  life,  in  danger  of  immediate 
death,  must  have  a  certain  amount  of  fear. 
That  this  is  in  varying  degree,  and  may  be 
lessened  by  constant  exposure  to  the  same  sort 
of  danger;  but  that  at  the  commencement  of 
any  danger  there  must  be  for  him  the  inevitable 
dread  of  losing  that  which  counts  most  to  all  of 
us — life.  Moreover,  it  has  seemed  to  me  that 
this  same  fear  is  the  governing  factor  in  de- 
termining whether  one  stands  fast  or  deserts. 
Man  has  in  danger,  two  fears.  One  that  he 
will  bcf  killed.  One  that  he  will  forever  shame 
himswtf  in  the  eyes  of  his  fellows  by  running 
awji^.     He  stands  as  the  pivotal  point  in  the 

Ml 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

balance  which  carries  on  either  pan  these  two 
fears,  and  whichever  one  is  the  strongest,  de- 
termines him  as  brave  man  or  coward.  In  other 
words,  I  believe  that  the  right  kind  of  fear  is 
really  bravery. 

In  a  little  book  *  written  by  a  young  French- 
man named  Paul  Lintier  who  served  until  his 
death  with  a  battery  of  75,  there  is  such  a  clear 
exposition  of  this  that  I  have  translated  it  and 
am  quoting  it  here.  It  seems  to  me  to  sum  up 
the  situation  very  precisely,  and  we  can  excuse 
to  his  pride  in  his  arm  of  the  service  the  special 
reservation  he  makes  for  the  Artillery  soldier. 
He  was  killed  by  a  German  shell  while  serving 
with  his  battery  and  before  he  was  twenty-three 
years  old. 

"As  far  as  we  are  concerned,  there  is 
nothing  to  do.  Over  towards  Stenay  the  sky 
line  is  unchanged  and  empty.  For  some  hours 
past  large  shells  have  been  dropping  by  threes, 
marking  with  the  punctuation  of  their  black 

*  "Ma  Piece"  By  Paul  Lintier.    Published  by  Plon-Nour- 
rit  &  Co..  Paris.  1917. 

MS 


FRONT  LINES 

bursts,  the  fair  green  page  of  the  prairie  where 
no  troops  are.  We  are  easily  in  range  of  these 
heavy  guns  and  there  is  no  certainty  that  at 
any  minute  a  change  in  their  elevation  may  not 
bring  us  under  their  fire.  Yet  no  one  seems 
to  think  of  it. 

"I  sometimes  wonder  at  the  marvelous  qual- 
ity of  adaptability  which  is  the  base  of  human 
character.  We  accustom  ourselves  to  constant 
danger  just  as  we  do  to  bitter  privations,  to 
the  uncertainty  of  the  morrow. 

"I  used  to  ask  myself,  before  the  war,  how 
it  was  that  the  aged  who  had  almost  reached 
the  limits  of  human  life,  could  live  so  peacefully 
in  the  shadow  of  imminent  death.  Now,  I  think 
I  understand,  for  to  us  in  these  circumstances, 
the  risk  of  death  has  come  to  be  just  a  part  of 
the  daily  routine.  One  counts  on  it  and  is  little 
astonished  and  less  afraid.  And  then,  each 
day  augments  our  courage. 

"The  human  organism  becomes  callous  under 
repeated  exposure  to  the  same  terrors  and  the 
shaking  nerves  grow  calm. 

249 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

"The  steady  fight  for  mastery  of  self  wins 
in  the  end  and  tluit  is  the  courage  of  the  soldier. 
One  is  not  born  brave — he  becomes  so. 

"The  instinctive  desire  not  to  be  overcome  is 
always  a  factor.  Furthermore,  one  must  live, 
to  the  best  of  his  ability,  whether  it  be  in  the 
turmoil  of  conflict,  or  in  times  of  peace.  You 
have  to  accommodate  yourself  to  this  new 
fashion  of  life,  however  wretched,  however  pre- 
carious it  be. 

"Finally,  the  thing  which  counts  above  all 
else — that  which  makes  the  situation  almost 
intolerable — is  fear,  the  very  essence  of  fear. 
That  must  be  overcome,  and  one  does  over- 
come it. 

"Together  with  the  desire  to  live,  no  matter 
how  wretched  life  may  be,  the  sense  of  duty  and 
regard  for  opinion — in  a  word,  honor — is  the 
great  educational  factor  in  determining  the 
character  of  the  soldier  under  fire.  I  do  not 
claim  this  as  original ;  it  is  merely  my  personal 
evidence  in  the  matter. 

"Furthermore,  I  believe  that  this  education 

250 


FRONT  LINES 

in  courage  is  easier  for  us  than  for  the  Infantry, 
the  hardest  tried  arm  in  the  service.  An  artil- 
leryman in  action  of  a  very  truth  carviwt  run 
away ;  every  one  in  his  battery  would  see  it ;  his 
disgrace  would  be  patent  to  all  and  beyond 
remedy. 

*'So  then,  fear,  extreme  fear,  seems  to  me  to 
be,  in  effect,  the  abolishing  of  the  power  of 
will.  The  man  who  is  not  capable  of  stand- 
ing calmly  face  to  face  with  danger  is  also  in 
the  majority  of  cases  equally  incapable  of 
overcoming  that  innate,  dominant  sense  of 
shame  which  would  result  from  public  flight. 
For  the  act  of  running  away  there  is  requisite 
a  certain  amount  of  will  power,  a  sort  of  quasi- 
bravery. 

*'The  Infantryman  not  infrequently  finds 
himself  alone  while  in  battle.  Under  cannon 
fire  a  man  crouched  on  the  ground  some  four 
meters  from  his  nearest  neighbor  is  in  reality 
very  much  alone.  His  individual  fancies  and 
worries  absorb  all  his  attention  and  from  this 
cause  he  may  yield  to  the  temptation  to  lag, 

251 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

to  hide  himself  and  finally  run  away.  Later  in 
the  day  when  he  has  rejoined  his  company  it 
is  easy  to  say  that  he  lost  his  squad  and  joined 
another.  He  has  good  grounds  for  supposing 
that  none  of  his  comrades  will  know  the  truth — 
and  he  has  this  knowledge  before  he  deserts  so 
that  he  does  not  have  to  combat  the  overpower- 
ing repugnance  to  a  flight  in  full  view  of  his 
fellows. 

"To  stand  fast  under  fire  means  much.  To 
preserve  your  sang  froid  is  another  proposition 
in  the  hell  of  modern  battle  conditions.  One 
is  instantly  afraid;  you  sweat  and  your  body 
is  shaken  as  though  by  an  ague.  It  is  irresist- 
ible; it  seems  that  there  is  no  escape  from 
death.  The  form  of  danger  is  unfamiliar;  one 
you  have  never  known.  The  imagination  mag- 
nifies it  and  you  can  neither  think  nor  reason. 
The  burst  of  the  shells,  their  acrid  smoke  and 
the  scream  of  the  flying  fragments  add  to  the 
stupor  of  these  first  moments. 

"However,  neither  the  flash  of  the  exploding 
melinite,  the  noise  of  the  detonation  nor  the 

262 


FRONT  LINES 

cloud  of  greasy  black  smoke  is  in  itself  a  danger. 
I  think  the  significant  fact  is  that  they  are  the 
accompanying  heralds  of  the  danger  and  that 
they  are  all  thrust  on  you  at  once  and  that  it 
is  this  which  gives  them  their  significance. 

"Very  soon  one  realizes  that  smoke  in  itself 
is  harmless :  that  the  scream  of  the  advancing 
shell  is  the  warning  of  its  approach  and  of  its 
direction.  You  do  not  turn  your  back  at  every 
shot  and  you  take  cover  only  with  the  certainty 
that  it  is  necessary. 

**Then  it  is  that  we  realize  that  fear  has  not 
conquered  us,  but  we  it.  There  lies  the  crux 
of  the  whole  situation. 


"Another  thing  which  makes  courage  easier 
for  the  Artilleryman  is  the  very  organization 
itself  of  his  service.  The  Infantry,  the  Cavalry, 
the  Engineers,  each  of  them  is  a  self-contained 
unit.  For  us,  the  Artillery,  the  unit  is  the  gun 
itself.  The  seven  men  who  serve  it  are  the 
intimately   interwoven   brain    and    sinew    of   a 

253 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

being  which  with  them  comes  to  life — the  gun 
in  action. 

"This  interlocking  of  seven  men,  each  to  the 
other  and  all  to  the  gun,  renders  any  short- 
coming so  patent,  so  serious  in  its  consequences 
that  the  resulting  shame  could  not  be  borne. 

"Then  also,  this  close  affiliation  makes  easy 
that  mysterious  psychologic  transference  of 
thought  and  soul  and  the  presence  of  one  or 
two  brave  and  resolute  spirits  is  often  sufficient 
to  set  the  standard  of  courage  for  the  entire 
gun-crew." 

There  was  a  Poste  de  Secour  of  the  cellar 
type  that  I  remember  very  vividly.  It  was  in 
the  defenses  about  Verdun  and  I  had  made  my 
visit  there  thinking  that  I  should  be  in  time 
to  see  something  of  a  rumored  French  offensive. 
As  it  turned  out,  I  was  a  little  too  early  and  got 
there  during  the  preliminary  artillery  prepara- 
tion. Artillery  preparation  has  been  described 
a  number  of  times  by  people  who  have  better 
command  of  adjectives  than  I  so  in  regard  to 
what  it  is  I  merely  mention  that  any  pen  pic- 

254f 


FRONT  LINES 

ture  leaves  one  entirely  at  sea  as  to  a  realiza- 
tion of  the  actuality.  It  is  just  magnified 
noise  which  shakes  your  very  being,  physical 
and  mental ;  a  constant  roar  of  the  guns  on  your 
side  and  the  exploding  shells  from  the  counter- 
battery  work  of  the  other. 

This  Poste  de  Secour  was  in  what  remained 
of  the  cellar  of  a  drunkenly  battered  chateau 
and  was  in  sight  of  those  two  hard  fought  for 
points,  the  "Mort  Homme"  and  "Hill  304." 
About  it  was  nothing  but  the  evidence  of  the 
destructive  power  of  high  explosive  shells  and 
they  were  coming  in  with  methodical  regularity 
while  I  was  there.  The  cellar  itself  had  been 
shored  up  with  heavy  timber  balks  to  give 
additional  resistance  against  any  direct  hit. 
It  was  a  vaulted  chamber  so  low  that  I  had  to 
stoop  to  make  my  way  about,  and  the  only 
light  was  a  few  kerosene  lamps  and  the  little 
French  hand  lights  without  a  chimney  which 
are  so  common  in  the  peasant  houses.  This  was 
presided  over  by  a  French  Medical  officer  and 
his  detachment  of  "Infirmiers."     An  "Infirmier" 

^55 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

would  correspond  in  our  own  service  with  a 
Hospital  Corps  private  who  had  received  in- 
struction in  First  Aid  work  and  knew  enough 
to  assist  in  dressing  the  wounds. 

Among  them  was  a  man  who  had  been  in  the 
United  States  and  I  was  amused,  and  a  little 
touched,  by  the  immediate  interest  he  took  in 
me  and  my  uniform.  He  was  eager  to  talk 
and  my  queries  in  regard  to  conditions  there 
were  often  parried  by  him  with  requests  for 
information  in  regard  to  places  in  my  own 
country  which  he  knew. 

The  Medical  Officer  said  that  he  had  been 
in  this  sector  for  the  past  ten  months  and  would 
welcome  life  for  a  time  in  a  quieter  place,  but 
he  seemed  proud  of  his  work  and  of  what  he 
was  doing  for  the  wounded.  Things  were 
necessarily  crude;  you  cannot  reasonably  ex- 
pect much  "de  luxe"  when  the  main  and  essen- 
tial object  is  to  have  a  place  which  shall  not 
be  battered  about  your  ears  by  falling  shell. 
There  was  an  operating  table  for  such  work 
as  was  imperative ;  the  stopping  of  hemorrhage 

256 


FRONT  LINES 

and  anything  that  could  not  be  deferred  until 
the  wounded  had  reached  the  next  point  back. 
There  were  supplies  of  dressings,  arrangements 
to  give  the  men  hot  soup  and  some  eight  or 
ten  spring  bunks  fastened  between  the  uprights 
which  shored  up  the  cellar.  There  were  some 
wounded  there  waiting  transport  to  the  ambu- 
lances of  the  rear;  none  very  seriously  hurt 
though  the  occasional  blood  stains  on  a  bandage 
gave  mute  evidence  that  below  the  snowy  cover- 
ing there  was  an  area  of  painful  and  tortured 
flesh.  They  were  a  patient  and  uncomplaining 
lot;  just  seemed  to  take  it  as  a  part  of  the 
game  and  during  the  time  I  was  there  I  heard 
no  moans,  and  no  complainings:  just  the  chat- 
ter of  low  voiced  French  as  they  exchanged 
views  on  the  topics  of  their  day. 

The  Medical  Officer  said  that  this  was  a  hard 
post  since  the  wounded  had  to  be  transported 
for  some  three  quarters  of  a  mile  or  more  by 
hand,  and  litter  transport  through  a  trench  is 
always  a  difficult  problem.  I  asked  him  about 
the  various  kinds  of  special  litter  which  have 

257 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

been  devised  to  meet  the  narrow  angles  of  the 
trenches  and  he  shrugged  his  shoulders  and 
said  that  these  were  well  enough  in  their  way 
and  undoubtedly  a  good  thing  when  you  had 
them — but  in  a  large  proportion  of  the  cases 
they  were  not  available  and  they  had  simplified 
the  matter  and  come  to  a  practical  solution  of 
the  matter.  Each  French  soldier  has  a  piece 
of  canvas  which  corresponds  in  a  measure  to 
one  of  our  shelter  halves.  These  they  use  in 
the  transport  through  the  trenches. 

To  illustrate,  he  had  one  brought  out  and 
laid  in  the  narrow  aisle  between  the  tiers  of 
posts  and  I  lay  down  on  it.  It  reached  from 
my  head  to  about  the  middle  of  my  lower  leg. 
They  took  up  the  diagonal  corners  (right  leg 
and  left  shoulder  and  left  leg  and  right  shoul- 
der) and  knotted  them  over  the  center  of  my 
belly.  Then  a  pole  was  slipped  under  the  knots 
and  as  they  raised  me  from  the  floor  the  canvas 
enveloped  me  as  in  a  hammock.  Unless  there 
is  a  fracture  of  the  leg  below  the  knee,  the  legs 
swing  down  from  the  knee  without  support,  thus 

258 


FRONT  LINES 

shortening  the  length  of  the  litter  and  making  it 
possible  to  turn  corners.  It  felt  comfortable 
and  seemed  practical,  for  the  man  almost  always 
has  this  sheet  with-  him  and  it  is  not  difficult 
to  find  a  short  pole  or  piece  of  plank  to  com- 
plete the  apparatus. 

I  was  the  recipient  of  a  pretty  piece  of  cour- 
tesy in  this  sector.  The  men  in  the  trenches 
amuse  themselves  when  they  are  not  busy  killing 
the  Boche  or  being  killed  by  him,  by  making 
such  articles  as  their  ingenuity  and  skill  sug- 
gest from  fragments  of  shell  and  shell  case.  I 
stopped  in  a  trench  to  watch  one  of  these  first 
line  mechanics  who  was  busy  with  file  and  pliers 
and  a  little  soldering  outfit  making  "briquets" 
which  are  the  cigarette  lighters  which  are  so 
common  in  France  as  a  substitute  for  matches. 
There  were  several  completed  on  the  fire  step 
before  him  and  knowing  that  they  were  made 
for  sale  I  took  out  a  roll  of  franc  notes  after 
examining  several  of  them.  Before  I  could 
make  an  offer  this  bearded  dirty  artisan  turned 
to  me  with  a  delightful  smile  and  said:  "Mon- 

259 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

sieur  is  not  only  the  first  American  Officer  who 
has  been  in  this  trench,  but  also  he  is  the  first 
American  Officer  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of 
seeing.  That  being  the  case,  will  monsieur  le 
Majeur  (general  term  for  a  Medical  Officer) 
forget  for  a  minute  that  I  am  merely  a  French 
Poilu,  allow  me  the  courtesy  that  exists  between 
all  gentlemen  of  whatever  nation  and  accept 
with  my  compliments  such  of  these  briquets  as 
may  seem  desirable  to  him?  Please  as  a  favor 
to  me." 

Indeed  I  did.  I  blushed  a  little,  put  my  notes 
in  my  pocket  and  took  the  one  I  liked  the  best 
and  thanked  Monsieur  the  Poilu  for  his  fine 
courtesy  and  good  feeling.  I  still  have  that 
briquet  with  my  initials  on  it  and  the  date  and 
the  name  of  the  sector.  It  was  continual  little 
acts  of  sincere  kindness  such  as  this  that  en- 
deared the  French  people  to  me.  In  two  years 
I  never  knew  one  who  was  not  kindly  and  con- 
siderate. 


CHAPTER  VII 

CONCLUSION 

Duty  such  as  it  was  my  lot  to  perform  for 
two  years  in  France  must,  of  necessity,  have  its 
sad  side  as  a  marked  feature.  Constant  asso- 
ciation with  the  maimed  and  the  sick  does  not 
make  for  a  cheery  existence. 

Yet,  even  so,  there  was  much  about  it  which 
was  very  well  worth  while,  aside  from  the  pro- 
fessional interest  which  can  be  understood. 
From  the  standpoint  of  the  wounded  themselves, 
there  was  the  lesson  of  cheerfulness  in  adversity, 
of  patience  under  severe  loss  and  the  evidence 
of  trying  to  make  the  best  of  what  circumstance 
had  left  to  build  up  and  go  on  with.  I  have 
referred  in  several  of  the  preceding  pages  to 
this  trait  among  the  wounded  French  and  it 
seems  to  me  now,  as  I  look  back,  to  be  par- 

261 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

ticularly  fine  and  sometliing  that  it  was  well 
to  have  seen  and  to  know  about. 

This  cheeriness  had  no  evidence  of  being 
forced;  it  seemed  entirely  spontaneous  and  to 
be  an  innate  part  of  the  character.  They  met 
things  with  their  chins  up  and  with  a  grin. 
They  had  a  joke  or  a  comical  word  for  almost 
any  situation  providing  it  did  not  carry  them 
beyond  the  bounds  of  their  strength.  Then," 
though  there  might  be  no  smile  nor  jest,  the  dig- 
nity with  which  they  closed  their  teeth  and 
silently  endured  the  necessary  merciful  torture 
was  as  fine  to  see  as  the  lightheartedness  of 
their  easier  moments. 

It  is  fortunate  that  even  a  Military  Observer 
of  medical  procedure  can  find  at  times  a  side 
of  life  that  is  not  quite  so  soberly  tinctured 
with  pain  and  sadness  as  that  which  falls  in 
the  field  of  his  duties.  Aside  from  those  with 
whom  I  came  in  contact  in  the  course  of  my 
official  wanderings,  I  made  many  other  friends. 
I  made  many  among  those  with  whom  I  was 
thrown  officially  and  as  I  came  to  know  them 

262 


CONCLUSION 

better  I  was  impressed  with  the  fine  courtesy 
which  was  everywhere  shown  me. 

We,  here  in  the  United  States,  have  some 
erroneous  ideas  in  respect  to  the  people  of 
France.  The  view  that  they  are  volatile,  and 
not  a  race  of  fixed  determination  and  persever- 
ance, is  altogether  at  variance  with  their  true 
character,  as  will  soon  be  apparent  to  any  one 
who  is  associated  with  them.  Their  true  qual- 
ity of  determination  and  dogged  persistence  has 
been  too  clearly  demonstrated  during  the  strug- 
gle with  Germany  to  allow  one  to  continue  in 
this  estimate.  Again,  I  think  that  many  of 
us  have  been  taught  to  believe  that  "French 
courtesy"  was  a  trait  which  existed  only  so  far 
as  a  surface  manifestation  went;  that  it  was 
superficial  and  not  whole  hearted.  My  own 
experience  went  entirely  to  disprove  this  and 
I  found  not  only  the  courtesy  of  manner  of 
which  I  had  heard  but  a  simple  and  direct  sin- 
cerity and  kindliness  which  added  the  solid  body 
to  what  without  it  would  have  been  a  shallow 
veneer.     I   had   ample    opportunity   to   judge 

263 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

and  was  speedily  convinced  that  my  former 
estimate  had  been  altogether  wrong. 

Furthermore,  they  are  not,  physically,  a 
small  people.  They  are  not  perhaps  on  the 
average  up  to  our  standard  of  stature,  but  they 
are  extremely  stocky  and  the  men  as  a  rule 
well  developed  and  thick  through  the  chest. 
The  French  *'poilu"  trudges  around  winter  and 
summer  loaded  down  with  various  articles  of 
equipment  which  make  him  look  like  an  animated 
Christmas  tree,  and  he  does  it  as  an  entire 
matter  of  course  and  would  be  surprised,  I 
think,  if  any  one  suggested  that  his  load  was  in 
any  way  excessive. 

A  story  was  told  me  in  this  connection  which 
I  think  illustrates  the  point.  On  a  long  march, 
one  of  the  privates  added  to  his  own  load  the 
pack  of  a  comrade  who  was  ill  and  not  fit  to 
bear  his  own  burden  for  the  time  being.  One 
of  the  Company  Officers  noticing  the  circum- 
stance kept  his  eye  from  time  to  time  on  the 
cheerful  one  who  was  doing  double  carrier  duty. 
As  he  passed  him  later  in  the  march  he  was 

264 


CONCLUSION 

astonished  and  a  little  perturbed  to  see  that  in 
addition  to  his  own  and  his  comrade's  pack  the 
soldier  had  super-imposed  a  good  sized  dog,  the 
company  mascot.  He  called  the  soldier's  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  he  was  already  carrying 
two  loads  and  asked  what  he  meant  by  adding 
the  dog  to  his  already  too  large  pack.  The 
Poilu  looked  at  him  gravely,  and  with  the  air 
of  explaining  a  perfectly  simple  state  of  affairs 
responded,  "Mais,  mon  Capitaine,  le  chien  est 
fatigue."  I  do  not  know  whether  that  has  any 
foundation  in  fact,  but  I  do  know  that  they 
carry  with  indifference  as  a  daily  routine  a  mis- 
cellaneous assortment  of  equipment  that  it  made 
me  tired  just  to  look  at. 

One  afternoon  I  was  walking  down  the 
Champs  Elysee  between  two  French  officer 
friends.  One  was  six  feet  four  and  the  other 
six  feet  three.  Stopping  I  commenced  to 
laugh :  one  of  them  said  with  the  permissable 
familiarity  of  friendship,  "Well,  idiot,  what  are 
you  laughing  at  now?"  The  other  joined  in, 
"Yes,  tell  us  the  joke  in  order  that  we  may 

265 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

laugh  together  if  it  is  so  funny."  I  explained, 
that  I  was  thinking  from  my  lowly  altitude  of 
five  feet  eleven  inches  of  the  description  in  my 
early  school  Geography  which  stated  that  "The 
French  are  a  slight  people,  gay  hearted  and 
fond  of  dancing  and  light  wines."  We  laughed 
together  then,  and  if  I  am  not  mistaken  in  my 
recollection,  went  across  the  Avenue  to 
Fouquet's,  the  famous,  where  we  demonstrated 
the  fact  that  even  if  they  could  not  live  up  to 
the  tradition  in  regard  to  the  slight  people,  they 
were  both  light  hearted  and  appreciated  the 
vintage  of  the  country. 

One  of  the  two  gave  me  evidence  of  his  sin- 
cerity and  feeling  the  day  that  news  came  that 
I  was  no  longer  a  Benevolent  Neutral,  but  had 
the  right  to  be  considered  as  one  of  them. 

My  office  telephone  rang  and  I  recognized 
the  voice  of  my  friend  who  asked  in  some  agita- 
tion if  I  should  be  in  the  office  for  a  few  minutes 
longer.  I  assured  him  that  I  should  and  he  said 
that  he  wished  to  see  me  on  a  matter  of  im- 

266 


CONCLUSION 

portance  and  would  be  there  in  a  very  short 
while. 

He  came  hastily  into  the  office  with  a  broad 
grin  on  his  face  and  immediately  said,  "Church, 
I  have  told  you  a  lie."  I  interjected,  "Prob- 
ably not  the  first,  Charles,"  and  he  went  on  not 
heeding  the  interruption.  "I  have  no  business 
to  talk,  but  I  have  just  heard  the  news  of  the 
United  States  and  I  did  not  wish  any  one  else 
to  be  the  first  to  greet  you  as  an  Ally:  please 
tell  me  that  I  am  the  first."  I  assured  him 
that  he  was  and  with  a  whoop  he  gathered  me 
to  a  very  broad,  blue  clad  French  breast  and 
I  emerged  with  aching  ribs  and  somewhat 
heightened  color,  to  realize  that  I  had  been 
kissed  on  both  cheeks  by  a  very  enthusiastic 
and  also  a  very  capable  and  distinguished  Officer 
of  the  French  Army.  A  New  England  con- 
science forces  me  to  admit  that,  on  this  occasion 
also,  we  motored  to  M.  Fouquet's  and  cemented 
the  new  union  in  a  perfectly  proper  and  excel- 
lently well  made  concession  to  the  Western  Hem- 
isphere, a  Martini  cocktail,  "bien  sec."     The 

267 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

French  love  to  tease,  "taquiner"  as  they  put  it. 
They  are  as  good  at  it  as  any  of  us  Yankees 
and  quite  as  clever.  They  tease  each  other 
without  end,  and  if  they  decide  that  they  like 
you,  they  tease  you  too:  and  you  do  not  mind 
it,  for  it  is  very  good  natured  and  you  tease 
them  back  again  and  if  you  get  the  best  of  one 
of  them  his  comrades  will  take  it  up  with  him 
and  guy  him  unmercifully. 

Their  relations  with  each  other  in  the  Army 
are  simple  and  in  a  way  less  formal  than  in 
our  own  service.  I  do  not  mean  to  intimate 
that  there  is  any  lack  of  discipline  nor  loss  of 
the  formal  courtesies,  but  they  can  seemingly 
let  down  the  bars  in  situations  where  to  us  there 
would  be  no  passing.  On  one  trip  I  made,  I 
had  as  my  mecanicien  a  very  nice  chap  who  was 
the  grandson  of  Violet-le-Duc,  the  famous  archi- 
tect under  the  third  Napoleon.  I  had  a  letter 
to  a  Medical  Officer  with  a  certain  army  and, 
when  in  answer  to  my  message  sent  in  to  his 
office  he  came  out  to  greet  me,  the  first  thing  he 
did  after  a  hurried  word  to  me  was  to  go  to 

268 


CONCLUSION 

the  other  side  of  the  automobile,  pull  my 
mecanicien  out  by  his  collar,  throw  his  arms 
around  him  and  laugh  and  chatter  for  some 
minutes.  He  was  a  Major  in  the  Medical  Corps 
and  the  jnecanicien  a  private  in  the  Automobile 
Service.  He  explained  that  he  and  the  mecanir 
cien  had  been  desk  mates  in  school  in  Paris 
twenty  years  before  and  that  this  was  the  first 
time  they  had  met;  and  he  asked  me  with  a 
little  doubtful  touch  of  embarrassment,  if  it 
would  offend  me  to  come  to  dinner  that  evening 
with  him,  the  mecanicieny  and  his  friend  the 
chauffeur. 

I  told  him  I  thought  I  could  make  that  con- 
cession in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  chauffeur, 
the  Tnecanicien,  my  companion  and  I  had  been 
eating  all  our  meals  together  since  we  had 
started  about  a  week  previously.  We  had  a 
jolly  dinner  that  night  and  the  next  night  the 
mecanicien  entertained  in  our  honor.  It  was 
all  simple  and  natural,  and  when  we  set  out  on 
tour  with  the  machine  the  mecanicien  was  the 
careful,    respectful    private,    watchful    to    do 

269 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

everything  possible  for  the  comfort  of  the  offi- 
cers whom  he  served  and  not  at  all  disturbed 
or  puffed  up  by  any  familiarity  which  might 
have  engendered  from  the  fact  that  we  had  all 
been  dining  and  drinking  good  French  wine  to- 
gether the  night  before.  They  seem  to  slide 
easily  from  the  relation  of  strict  Military 
regime  to  the  more  personal  one  and  back  again 
with  never  a  touch  of  undue  or  offensive  famil- 
iarity. I  do  not  think  we  could  do  it  in  our 
own  service,  but  as  the  old  song  puts  it,  it  is, 
I  expect,  "because  we  ain't  built  that  way." 

For  some  months,  while  I  was  serving  on  our 
own  Headquarters  Staff,  I  was  billeted  with 
two  very  delightful  old  French  people.  Mon- 
sieur and  Madame  R .     When  I  moved  into 

my  quarters  1  think  they  were  a  little  dubious 
as  to  what  the  barbarian  American  might  be 
like  and  I  remember  the  look  of  relief  which 
flitted  over  Madame's  kindly  face  when  I  took 
off  my  cap  and,  apologizing  in  my  best  French 
for  the  intrusion,  assured  her  that  I  would  be  as 
little    trouble    as    possible.     Figuratively,    she 

270 


CONCLUSION 

took  me  to  her  heart  then  and  there  and  from 
that  time  on  I  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
a  member  of  the  household,  and  so  they  dubbed 
me,  "le  fils  du  maison."  Her  husband  was 
seventy-two,  spent  much  of  his  time  riding  a 
bicycle  and  all  the  rainy,  cold  days  out  with  a 
gun  and  dog,  hunting,  Madame  was  some  sixty 
odd  and  quite  as  active  as  her  husband.  He 
was  an  inveterate  tease  and  between  us  we  used 
to  plague  Madame  to  her  pretended  distraction, 
but  I  know  she  liked  it.  They  did  everything 
possible  to  add  to  my  comfort  in  their  spot- 
less house  and  when  my  orders  took  me  from  the 
village  and  from  France,  she  put  her  arms 
around  my  neck  and  frankly  crying,  said  as  she 
kissed  me  good  bye,  "But  my  son,  my  son,  we 
shall  miss  you  so."  It  is  not  hard  to  like,  to 
be  fond  of,  people  who  treat  you  so. 

My  office  there  was  about  a  mile  from  the 

house  where  I  lived  with  M.  and  Madame  R • 

and  in  the  winter  it  was  quite  dark  when  the 
time  came  for  me  to  go  home:  the  early  dark- 
ness of  winter  at  half  past  five.     Almost  every 

271 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

evening  I  walked  home  with  a  young  lady;  for 
a  long  time  I  did  not  know  whether  she  were 
pretty  or  not,  nor  her  name.  She  never  asked 
me  to  call  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  lived  just 
across  the  street  from  me  and  that  we  always 
held  hands  as  we  came  along  the  dark  streets. 
I  found  out  later  that  she  was  pretty,  and  that 
her  name  was  Marcelle.  You  see  Marcelle  was 
just  nine  years  old,  and  she  got  out  of  school 
just  about  the  time  I  came  home.  And  so, 
when  I  got  to  a  certain  corner  there  was  a 
patter  of  little  feet,  the  swish  of  thin  little 
skirts,  a  little  cold  hand  slipped  into  mine  and 
a  childish  treble  which  piped,  "C'est  Marcelle, 
mon  Colonel,"  and  away  we  went,  the  big  Ameri- 
can officer  and  the  little  French  refugee  from 
invaded  France,  for  such  she  was. 

She  told  me  that  the  arithmetic  had  been 
hard  that  day,  or  the  teacher  cross,  and  of  what 
she  hoped  to  have  for  supper  and  the  news  of 
mother  and  her  little  brother.  She  was  always 
cheerful  and  always  very  punctilious,  with  her 
"Oui,  mon  Colonel,"  and  "Mais  certainement, 

272 


CONCLUSION 

mon  Colonel,"  and  when  we  parted  at  the  door 
she  never  failed  to  wish  me  a  good  appetite  and 
sound  slumber.  Poor  little  waif;  she  had 
lived  in  Picardy  somewhere  until  driven  out  by 
the  German  invasion  when  they  had  drifted  to 
this  town  where  her  mother  by  dint  of  daily  toil 
and  such  aid  as  the  village  people  could  give 
her,  kept  the  little  family  in  food  and  the 
meager  black  they  wore.  The  husband  and 
father  had  been  called,  as  all  France  was,  to  the 
colors  and  after  one  of  the  engagements  news 
came  that  he  was  missing.  Just  that  one 
agonizing  word :  and  from  that  time  on  he  had 
been  only  a  memory,  a  wistfully  hoped  for  per- 
son who  would  never  return  to  find  those  whom 
war  and  invasion  had  driven  from  the  humble 
home  in  Picardy  so  far  afield.  Not  all  the 
tragedies  are  in  the  men  who  are  killed  or 
wounded.  If  war  is  hard  for  those  who  bear 
the  brunt  of  the  attack  and  whose  bodies  carry 
the  mark  of  hostile  steel,  there  is  still  a  world 
of  silent  agony,  of  waiting  suffering  for  those 
who  can  only  bear  with  weary  patience  the  days 

273 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

and  months  which  elapse  after  son  or  father  or 
husband  has  gone  to  the  wars. 

To  the  killed  and  the  wounded  there  is  added 
that  category  which  has  always  seemed  to  me  to 
be,  by  the  very  uncertainty  of  it,  the  hardest 
to  bear.  I  mean  the  hopeful,  hopeless,  state 
which  is  entered  under  the  head  of  "missing." 
"Missing"  may  mean  so  much,  and  at  the  same 
time,  so  little.  In  the  majority  of  cases  it 
signifies  that  he  whose  name  is  so  carried  is 
killed.  Either  lying  undiscovered  in  some  part 
of  that  withered  stretch  called  "No  Man's 
Land,"  or  that  he  has  been  literally  blown  to 
nothing  by  the  rending  power  of  high  explo- 
sive, or  perchance  that  the  shell  which  killed 
him  has  covered  his  torn  body  with  a  mantle 
of  earth  which  hides  it  from  all  searching  eyes. 
There  are  others  missing  too;  those  who  have 
not  fallen  in  battle.  The  fate  of  many  who  had 
the  evil  fortune  to  fall  into  German  hands  in  the 
captured  country  will  be  for  all  time  a  mystery 
to  those  who  wait  with  wistful  eyes  and  aching 
hearts  for  news  which  will  never  come.     It  was 

274 


CONCLUSION 

this  variation  of  conditions,  this  constant 
change  of  scene  and  association  which  gave  a 
pecuHar  interest  to  the  work  as  Military 
Observer. 

To  the  zest  of  the  pursuit  of  desired  informa- 
tion was  added  the  contact  with  many  people 
of  interesting  personality,  and  the  constant 
change  of  environment.  While  still  the  repre- 
sentative of  a  neutral  power  I  spent  a  month 
on  the  island  of  Corsica.  During  the  days 
prior  to  the  rupture  of  our  peaceful  relations 
with  the  German  Government,  our  Embassies, 
both  at  Paris  and  Berlin,  were  charged  with 
the  supervision  of  the  conditions  existent  in  the 
various  prison  camps  of  both  nations.  Com- 
plaints were  referred  to  our  Ambassadors  by 
the  warring  powers  and  investigated  through 
this  agency.  I  was  sent  with  others  delegated 
from  our  Embassy  at  Paris  to  look  into  condi- 
tions in  the  Corsican  camps  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, spent  a  month  in  the  Corsican  moun- 
tains. It  was  interesting  aside  from  the  duties 
to  be  performed  for  the  country  is  probably 

275 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

the  most  picturesque  in  the  world  and  the  op- 
portunity to  explore  it  by  automobile  an  un- 
usual privilege. 

So  far  as  the  camps  and  the  conditions  in 
them  were  concerned,  there  was  little  to  take 
exception  to.  The  lot  of  a  prisoner  of  war 
is  naturally  not  an  enviable  one  and  the  re- 
striction and  the  routine  of  course  irksome. 
So  far  as  we  could  determine,  those  who 
were  confined  were  as  well  treated  as  the  re- 
sources of  the  state  permitted.  There  were 
no  luxuries  but  when  the  men  of  France  were 
undergoing  what  is  incident  to  life  in  the 
trenches  it  would  be  folly  to  expect  better  for 
those  who  had  fallen  before  the  prowess  of  their 
arms.  The  Germans  were  better  housed  than 
the  French  in  the  field  and  as  well  fed.  The 
general  objection  seemed  to  be,  not  that  they 
were  badly  cared  for,  but  an  unreasoning  ob- 
jection to  being  prisoners  at  all.  I  could  well 
understand  this,  for  to  me  being  a  prisoner  of 
war  with  the  attendant  inaction  and  dull  rou- 
tine seems  one  of  the  lowest  forms  of  amuse- 

276 


CONCLUSION 

ment.  In  one  of  the  camps  I  asked  if  there 
were  present  any  one  who  spoke  English.  One 
of  the  men  stepped  forward,  and  since  the 
French  Captain  who  commanded  the  prison  also 
spoke  and  understood  English,  I  was  allowed 
to  talk  to  the  man  in  that  language.  I  asked 
him  various  questions  in  regard  to  conditions 
which  he  answered  fairly  with  a  degree  of  philos- 
ophy, and  concluded  by  saying,  "I  have  no 
complaint  to  make  of  my  treatment,  Major; 
the  French,  I  do  not  doubt,  do  the  best  they 
can  for  us,  but  I  must  confess  that  I  am  not  as 
well  cared  for  as  I  was  before  I  was  interned/' 
In  answer  to  my  inquiry,  he  replied,  "Oh,  be- 
fore the  war  I  was  one  of  the  head  waiters  at  the 
Ritz  in  Paris,  and  there  is  a  quite  marked  con- 
trast between  conditions  there  and  here  in 
Corsica." 

What  sympathy  I  had,  not  much  frankly, 
was  with  these  civil  internes  rather  than 
with  the  fighting  men  who  had  been  given 
their  chance,  had  taken  their  turn  in  the 
trenches  and  by  the  fortunes  of  war  were  now 

m 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

spared  the  hazard  of  further  danger.  The 
civilian  had  not  even  that  service  to  look  back 
on.  Merely  the  knowledge  that  he  was  so  much 
available  man  power  that  had  been  lost  to  his 
Government  through  the  inadvertence  of  his 
having  been  in  the  wrong  place  at  the  wrong 
time.  At  the  hotel  in  Bastia  we  were  waited 
on  by  a  cheerful  Boche  who  answered  to  the 
name  of  "Willie."  Willie  had  been,  prior  to 
hostilities,  a  waiter  in  the  Continental  hotel  in 
Paris  and  according  to  his  own  statement,  hav- 
ing little  taste  for  martial  career,  had  decided 
to  emigrate  to  the  United  States  when  war 
seemed  imminent  in  1914.  He  delayed  one 
steamer  too  long  and  the  drag  net  swept  him 
up  and  landed  him  in  this  Isle  of  the  Vendetta, 
there  to  regret  his  procrastination.  He  was  a 
good  waiter  and  aside  from  the  fact  of  his 
nationality  perfectly  acceptable.  He  spoke 
French  of  sorts  and  English  of  sorts  also,  but 
I  think  that  there  was  always  in  his  square  head 
an  undercurrent  of  German  stupidity.  I 
bought  one  of  the  cheeses  which  they  make  in 

278 


CONCLUSION 

Corsica  and  which  are  much  like  the  Roquefort 
of  France.  As  it  developed  a  frank  cheese 
aroma,  I  asked  Willie  to  wrap  it  and  mail  it 
to  my  address  in  Paris,  rather  than  have  it 
continually  advertising  its  existence  in  my  be- 
longings. The  next  day  I  asked  Willie  if  he 
had  executed  my  commission  and  with  the  pride 
of  duty  well  accomplished  he  replied,  "Oh,  yes, 
sir,  I  wrapped  him  and  sent  him  to-day;  and 
that  he  might  go  safely  I  wrapped  him  in  a 
bottle."  Now  that  cheese  was  some  nine  inches 
square  and  how  even  Willie  could  have 
"wrapped  him  in  a  bottle"  was  beyond  my  com- 
prehension. One  of  my  companions  asked  me 
if  *Vrap"  meant  anything  in  French.  It  did, 
and  it  does,  and  Willie  wandering  in  the  mazes 
of  his  three  tongues  had  put  a  French  con- 
struction on  that  good  English  word  and  turned 
it  into  "raper"  which  means  "to  grate."  On 
my  arrival  in  Paris  I  found  a  very  large  bottle 
into  which  had  been  grated  with  methodical 
German  thoroughness  all  of  that  very  good 
cheese. 

279 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

Paris  in  war  is  not  the  Paris  of  peace.  The 
beauty  of  the  city  is  the  same  but  the  light- 
heartedness  is  gone.  It  is  no  longer  the  play- 
ground for  all  the  world  but  the  heart  and  soul 
of  a  very  real  and  very  near  and  very  grim 
struggle.  It  is  a  sad  city  but  not  a  despondent 
city.  There  is  everywhere  in  it  the  evidence  of 
the  sacrifices  a  nation  is  making  to  preserve  its 
integrity.  Men  in  civil  clothes  are  only  those 
who  are  unfit  for  Military  service:  there  are 
many  women  in  black  but  they  have  not  lost 
their  courage  nor  the  proud  consciousness 
that  the  loss  which  is  theirs  means  a  supreme 
gift  to  the  State.  There  is  no  music  save  the 
occasional  rhythm  of  an  army  band  which  es- 
corts some  regiment  on  its  way  to  the  front, 
or  follows  a  black  catafalque  to  the  last  resting 
place  in  Pere  la  Chaise. 

Dance  they  do  not  in  war  time  and  all  cafes 
close  decorously  and  finally  at  half  after  nine. 
It  is  a  Paris  shorn  of  the  frivolities,  peopled  by 
wounded  men  who  are  still  gay  on  their 
crutches,  and  with  the  ever-deferred-to  "per- 

280 


CONCLUSION 

missionaire"  who  has  come  back  to  "Paname" 
for  the  joy  of  his  ten  days'  respite  from  the 
trenches.  It  is  an  interesting  world,  and  I 
think  more  cosmopolitan  now  than  it  was  in  the 
days  of  happy  peace.  One  meets  here  now,  as 
he  used  to  at  Shepherd's  in  Cairo,  all  the  world 
from  everywhere  and  this  is  natural  since  our 
entry  as  an  Ally,  for  to  this  city,  the  heart  of 
France,  come  all  those  who  can  wheedle  the 
State  Department  into  issuing  that  rara  avis, 
a  passport  to  France. 

I  read  the  other  day,  the  answer  of  an 
Aviator  who  was  asked  the  most  thrilling  mo- 
ment he  remembered  in  connection  with  the  war. 
It  was,  "Pershing's  arrival  in  Paris." 

I  should  have  said  the  same  thing.  You  see, 
for  many  months  we  of  the  American  Military 
Mission  had  been  here,  in  the  heart  of  things; 
becoming  each  day  more  and  more  imbued  with 
the  spirit  which  was  later  to  actuate  the  whole 
Nation.  Forced  by  the  necessities  of  Diplo- 
matic custom  to  preserve  a  smiling  and  imper- 
sonal front  with  never  a  chance  to  express  the 

281 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

convictions  which  had  grown  up  within  us; 
drab  as  our  sedate  civilian  attire  and  politely 
tolerated  by  the  French  as  some  curious  kind  of 
third  sex. 

And  then  came  the  April  6,  1917,  and  the 
right  to  put  on  the  service  uniform  and  know 
that  it  stood  for  a  power  of  help  and  not  as  the 
badge  of  an  indifferent  foreigner.  And  after 
that,  Wednesday,  May  the  thirteenth,  when 
Pershing  arrived  as  the  visible  evidence  that  we 
were  to  take  our  part  in  the  struggle. 

It  was  a  very  wonderful  coming.  There  was 
no  notice  of  it  in  the  morning  papers :  no  refer- 
ence in  those  at  noon,  and  only  a  short  note  in 
the  evening  press  which  was  on  the  streets  at 
four  o'clock.  How  all  Paris  learned  of  the 
fact  I  do  not  know,  but  learn  they  did  and  the 
ovation  they  gave  to  this  General  from  over 
the  sea  was  wonderful  to  see  and  doubly  im- 
pressive from  the  fact  that  it  was  impromptu. 

At  five-thirty,  the  Gare  de  I'Est  was  crowded 
and  surrounded  by  a  dense  pack  of  people.  In- 
side, preparations  had  been  made  for  a  fitting 

282 


CONCLUSION 

reception.  JofFre  was  there,  and  Poincare  and 
many  high  officials,  and  drawn  up  on  the  station 
platform  was  a  battalion  of  Infantry  in  full 
marching  order  and  flanked  by  the  band  of  the 
Garde  Republicaine.  The  arrival  of  the  General 
in  the  station,  his  greetings  by  the  high  French 
officials,  the  blare  of  the  band,  the  French  vet- 
erans who  stood  fixed  at  "present  arms" — all 
this  was  impressive,  but  to  my  mind  it  was  insig- 
nificant in  comparison  to  the  homage  of  the 
waiting  thousands  without. 

All  the  way  down  the  rue  Lafayette,  ap- 
propriate entry  for  the  United  States  on  such 
an  occasion,  and  on  over  the  two  miles  which 
lay  between  the  station  and  the  hotel,  these 
Paris  streets  were  dense  with  those  who  wished 
to  see  the  vanguard  of  the  new  Allies.  There 
was  no  hysterics,  no  superabundance  of  enthu- 
siasm, but  a  sober  confidence,  an  apparent  be- 
lief that  the  force  needed  to  weigh  down  the 
scale  had  come  at  last.  There  was  to  me  some- 
thing inexpressibly  touching  in  it;  something 
that  thrilled  one  and  made  the  whole  being  tin- 

283 


THE  DOCTOR'S  PART 

gle  with  pride  and  emotion.  As  General  Persh- 
ing went  out  on  the  balcony  of  the  Hotel  Cril- 
lon  facing  the  Place  de  la  Concorde  and  bared 
his  head  to  the  cheering  crowd  below,  one  was 
conscious  of  the  emotion  which  stirred  him, 
which  must  have  been  inevitable  in  the  face  of 
such  a  demonstration  of  faith  and  confidence 
and  I  think  we  all  had  an  inkling  of  the  thoughts 
which  must  have  been  his. 

It  was  a  spectacle  I  shall  always  remember 
and  be  glad  to  remember:  I  am  proud  to  think 
that  I  was  permitted  to  see  it  and  that  there 
was  accorded  me,  before  and  after  this,  some 
chance  to  aid  in  the  common  cause,  to  fulfill  that 
which  is  the  wish  of  every  normal  man,  to  give 
of  his  own  effort  the  best  he  can  when  his  coun- 
try calls. 


THE   END 


pyfi  '  -  '  """  •"■'-  '^r" '   ■•A"'"'-""' 


"\nMi\/FR^lTV  LIBRARIES  (hslstx) 

RD  151  C47  C.l 

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2002138336 


